Richard Pimentel Has Been on a Mission to Change How We Perceive Disability

Disability rights advocate, public speaker and Vietnam veteran, Richard Pimentel, takes Dave through his hearing loss story, why he refused to change his dreams to fit his situation, how he became a key player during the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the difference between backpacks and baggage.

Link to full transcript

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to Starkey Soundbites. I'm your host, Dave Fabry, Starkey's Chief Innovation Officer. This month marks the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by then President George H.W. Bush. One of the key players who helped make the ADA a reality is a man who is very near and dear to our hearts here at Starkey. Richard Pimentel is a passionate advocate for those with disabilities, including those with hearing loss. We're honored to talk with him here on this episode of the podcast, and he joins us from his home over Zoom today. Richard, welcome to Starkey Soundbites.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Oh, well, thank you. And uh thank you, thank you for having me. Starkey is forever my favorite company in the universe.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Well, I've had the opportunity to hear you speak uh quite a few times to our team at Starkey and then also some of our partners. And uh you never fail to impress with uh enlightening stories, inspiring stories. And I, you know, your story itself is just incredible. And I appreciate your being with us on the podcast today to share it. It's really a story of determination that has inspired so many people and led to real change in our country. Uh and thank you for your continued service. We'll talk a little bit about how you acquired your hearing loss in service to our country and then your continued service for those with disabilities to this day. But uh let's start from the beginning. Where where did you grow up and tell us about your family circumstances growing up a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Well, I grew up in Portland, Oregon, which is a great town. It's a town of rivers and bridges and one-way streets and militant bicyclists. Uh and I was uh I was raised by my grandmother who was uh uh uh disabled. Uh she had a condition you rarely hear about today. Uh it was called Milk Lake. Uh women who were pregnant way back then would have problems, and she could barely walk. And so she uh uh she raised me and we were poor. We were uh we were uh raised on welfare and uh uh it was uh it was kind of tough, but since everybody was poor, uh we had no idea that we were there was any problem.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Right. You we level set, we don't even realize where we are just in that moment, and we you everyone starts where they where they begin and uh it takes us in different directions. But that what an interesting perspective raised by your grandmother who had that disability, but you know, you just sort of make do if you say what year was that? When were you born? 1948. 48. Okay. So continuing then with that, and how early did you know you had a hearing loss? Was that acquired as a result of the injuries suffered in Vietnam, or did you have uh any hearing loss even uh when you were young that you knew about?

SPEAKER_02 3:18

No, I uh I uh I couldn't afford to go to college because we were poor. Uh but the government was offering this really great program when I was 18, uh, where you could trade government service for an entire college education. Uh they they called it Vietnam.

SPEAKER_04 3:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

When I I put in for that scholarship, uh I was uh brought in and I uh I served in the uh 101st Airborne Division, Screaming Eagles, 101. And uh one one of the Starkey family, and I'll go ahead and make the jump and call him one of the uh family, uh uh was my commanding officer, General Colin Powell.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

No kidding. Wow, he was your commanding officer.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Yeah, yeah, what a great man. Yeah, what a great man.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Had the privilege to meet him myself, and he indeed was, and it's unfortunate his passing just a couple years ago now.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Oh, that it broke it broke my heart. He was he was someone you could trust. Yeah, if if Colin Powell told me that the sky was falling, I would have beat Chicken Little to the bunker. Uh but uh when I was in Vietnam, uh I was in a bunker, speaking of bunkers, and a rocket hit it. So there was a an explosion on the outside of the bunker and an implosion on the inside. And I I came out with a traumatic brain injury uh and a major significant hearing loss. And if you know, I know you folks know veterans uh that hearing loss is one of the most common uh injuries that that veterans face.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

In fact, hearing loss and tinnitus are ringing in your ears, which no doubt you suffered as well. Are the two most common uh uh health conditions reported by veterans because of those extreme uh events, either from gunfire or in your case, uh uh you know, getting hit in the bunker. Uh, we know with uh some of the IEDs and you know, we now we still have all really uh there are precious few World War II vets still alive, but between Korean War, Vietnam, and then you look at the uh Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and war has changed, but one thing that has remained the same is noise. And many of those loud, and uh many of those veterans lose hearing or suffer hearing damage that leads to ringing in their ears. And uh and I'm I'm I'm so sorry to I I knew that before, but to to again share that, it must have been very traumatic for you in addition to other injuries that you suffered in that bunker explosion.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Yes. Uh a unfortunately common uh uh combination, yeah, uh a hearing loss and a traumatic brain injury from from the explosion. So I had to come back and uh and learn to do everything all over again. Uh I had to learn to walk again, I had to learn to be able to talk again, and then I've I've got I've got the hearing loss. So that's when I first knew that there was a problem, and I didn't know anything about hearing or hearing losses at that time.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Boy, and and traumatic brain injury unfortunately continues to be a major source of uh of uh conflict that occurs from some of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. And PTSD that comorbidity with that with the with the PTSD, hearing loss, ringing, and TBI. And I know there's a lot of work in this area, but it is very challenging for many veterans. And and having worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, I did um see quite a few veterans as well. I was I worked as a civilian in the in the audiology and speech department, but I I did see many active duty uh and and veteran uh individuals who were uh uh seen at Walter Reed during the time, late 80s, early 90s.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

I I admire that. I'm a big fan of Walter Reed. I I went in and saw them uh use a 3D printer to print out uh a skull like a little jigsaw puzzle when someone would have uh a traumatic brain injury, and they they could just print it out and then place it in the skull and it would fit perfectly. And we we saw that happen. It was one of the great medical uh advances that has helped uh uh veterans during the Gulf War, because there were so so many of those uh improvised uh explosion devices and causing all of that.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

So many innovations came out of that center and the research, the unfortunate consequences of the conflict, but led to so many advances, and I think with prosthetics, and then as you say, with uh traumatic brain injury, and uh I really treasure my time there uh that I had uh early in my career, and I think it really helped me understand because I I I was born you know just a little bit after you, so uh I was uh I didn't have that same opportunity for the scholarship, uh, although um, you know, I've worked with a lot of my friends, uh, uh did go serve in Vietnam, and then I was a little too old for some of the later conflicts. But but it gave me a great appreciation for um uh the service uh that you've given, and then continuing that journey. Um, what led you? I mean, so many people don't realize the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the work that you put into that, along with many others. But I mean, you know, we didn't have that before 1990, and and that, you know, that's only a little over 30 years ago. And um and talk a little bit about what led to your involvement and your passion, your deep passion for ensuring that this bill uh get passed and uh and ensure the the rights uh for those with disabilities under that ADA Act.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Well, I I came back in 1969 and I uh went to the the VA. Uh it this may seem odd to you, but uh when I was disabled in Vietnam, being raised as a very impoverished, you know, an impoverished home, uh I looked I looked at my uh my injury as an opportunity to go to college. I thought, you know, it's uh now I can go to college. And then so I I went to uh uh the rehab counselors in the in the VA and they they looked at my diagnosis and they said, Well, what do you want to do? And I said, Well, I was a speaker in high school, I was a really good speaker, and I want to be a business consultant. Uh and and the counselor looked at me and said, No, you can't. Wow, you can't be a speaker. I said, Why? He said, Because you're deaf. He said, Deaf people can't be speakers because pretty soon you're gonna be speaking like a deaf person and no one wants to hear that. And you can't be a business consultant because you've got a traumatic brain injury. And how can you how can you consult with people? Because we have to find you a job that fits your disability.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Placing a lid on the on what the expectation is for what you could accomplish in life because of your disability your disability.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

I had all of these dreams, and here's basically what he told me. You have to modify your dreams, you have to give up your dreams to fit your circumstances. And I said, Well, what do deaf people do? And he says, Well, we have a book. I said, You have a book about what deaf people can do? He says, Yeah. And he looked at it and he said, shoe repair. You'll be really good at shoe repair. We could put you in shoe repair. I said, What do people with traumatic brain injuries do? And he said, Not much.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Oh my.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

So it's it's shoe repair.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

And I thought about that because I never realized before that people with disabilities were not just blocked from doing the things they wanted to do, but they were pushed in to other directions based on whatever impairment they had. Yeah. That this job's good for the blind and this job's good for the deaf. And I thought something is seriously wrong with that.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah, it's early in my career. I remember uh working with those with significant hearing loss. Many of them worked in the printing press area for newspapers. Because again, there was a very loud area, and they thought, oh, well, we'll take people who are deaf and put them in that area because then we don't worry about them losing more hearing loss. But again, talk about just funneling someone in, not from their aptitude and their ability, but thinking about the disability.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Yeah. They weren't doing it because of who I was, they were doing it because of what I had. And one of the one of the great lessons for people who work in this field, and and you know how what I think of what I think of Starkey, is that it's not the disability that comes first, it's the person that comes first. And and one of the one of the things I figured out, even at the VA at that time, I said to myself, you know, I am I have just been told that I have to change my dreams to fit my situation. I said, you know, no, I'm going to change my situation to fit my dreams.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

So it really changed the trajectory of your life by giving you that limitation of the diagnosis of we're going to channel you into a shoemaker. Um, and then you said, uh-uh, uh not not doing that. I'm not gonna be funneled into that, I'm gonna change the system.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

That's right. And I I would have been the worst shoemaker in the history of the world. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Did you ever did you ever for a moment consider or have you along the way considered what it would have been like to be a shoe, with no disrespect to shoemakers? I mean, trust me, I've known a few. But but you know, if you had no interest in it, but only the the only thing qualifying you was your hearing loss. I mean, it is it seems absurd, and yet this conversation was only taking place less than 50 years ago. I think for many of the younger practitioners listening to this to realize this is not a conversation from a hundred years ago that you read about in a history book. This is 50 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

Absolutely. And when I I I went in, I got into college, I found a professor who who said, I'll I'll I'll teach a speech. You know, I know I know who you are from high school. That was the high school orator. And then I found that there's a lot of people at my school who had disabilities who were being told the same thing. Oh my. And then what I found out was that we were excluded, physically excluded if you had a physical barrier, uh, excluded uh because of my my brain injury and and because of my my hearing, people who were blind. And most of my friends uh in college were people with disabilities, and the disability movement was just starting to grow at that time. And remember what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a speaker, I wanted to be a consultant. I I was an old high school orator, whatever that's worth. And and I I saw what this movement was about. I made I made friends with a with a with a fellow that uh uh that had cerebral palsy. Uh his name was Arthur Honeyman, and his uh he had pretty severe cerebral palsy, but he was he was a genius too. He was an evil genius, but he was he was a genius. And and his speech was unintelligible. No one could understand it because he spoke in a very guttural kind of way, and and and uh uh his his high notes uh the were the high frequencies were kind of garbled, and uh but the really what he was saying was in the lower frequencies, but it would mix anybody who had regular hearing up. They couldn't tell what he was talking about.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

Sure, you add in the hearing loss.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

That's what I had no upper register hearing because it seems like that's what you lose in combat. It is, is you you lose the upper. All I had was a lower register providence. I understood art. I was the only person in the entire university that understood every word he said because of my hearing loss.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Well, and and I think also, you know, it's interesting. I I I'd forgotten um this part of your journey. And when I was growing up, uh uh I had a neighbor uh across the street that became a close friend of mine growing up, Peter Klein, who had who was imprisoned by cerebral palsy as well. His brain was was a genius, like you said. He was a musical genius. His musical collection was unparalleled in the neighborhood. But I think I'll beg to differ. I think that your hearing loss helped, but the fact that you saw him as an individual and you saw him as a person, not by this, you know, the body that that scares people in some cases, unfortunately, with cerebral palsy, you know, because his motions are jerky if if if you know certain aspects and there are many different variations of cerebral palsy. But but I think I I'll beg the difference say that your hearing loss probably helped. But the fact that you were able to see him as an individual rather than a disability and channeling into limiting him in the way that your view of him, because so many people view those with cerebral palsy in particular as uh not only affecting their body but their mind. And as you said, he was an evil genius. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

He was an evil genius. Uh his is uh his uh uh well his his IQ was over my cholesterol level. So anyway, at that time, and and this may surprise some of your audience. At that time, people with disabilities were separated from the rest of society by law. Uh, there were things called the ugly law, and you may want to look them up. Go ahead and Google or whatever you whatever you use, write the word ugly law, throw Harvard law in there. There's a big article about uh 23 states that had laws that said people who are crippled, maimed, deformed, or otherwise unsightly or improper per persons may not be out in the public thoroughfare. People with amputations had to cover them up when they were in public, or they could be arrested for offending the the population. Now, the many many of your listeners are simply not going to believe that ever happened in the United States.

SPEAKER_00 19:13

Not that long ago.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

It was the law, and it wasn't that. You know, you know what ended all that 30 years ago, the ADA.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

And and and the and and the crux of it was that I explained to Art about the dreams that we must change our circumstances, not our dreams. And that that was my goal. Art and I became friends. Art called me one night uh at the dorm. All he could do was knock over his phone, and then the operator would come on and he'd make art sounds. And then he whatever they give it to, they'd send it to my phone. And he said, pancakes, birthday, 10 bucks. So I knew what he wanted. He wanted me to go to his room, get him dressed, take the wheelchair down, three sets of stairs, go to the pancake house, have have pancakes. When we got there, they refused the service. Wow. And uh they the waitress even said that that uh how dare he come out in public where people were trying to eat, and uh she was gonna call the police and have us arrested. To which Art said, call him. And she did. And the police came and said, uh if you don't leave, we're gonna take you to jail. And Art said, I want to go to jail, Richard wants to go to jail too. I'm thinking, no, I don't.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Wait a minute, recruiting me in this.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

I want to be a business consultant. I don't even think you'd be a shoemaker if you went to jail. Anyway, uh, but I said, I wasn't gonna leave him. You know why? Because what I learned in Vietnam is the most important thing that I carry with me today. You never leave a fallen comrade on the battlefield under any circumstances at all. And what I realized when I got home that shaped my entire life was all my comrades do not fall on the battlefield. Some of them come home to fall, and some of them are home all the time and fall. And I wasn't gonna leave art. I said, I'm going to jail too. And we went to jail and we became a cause celebrity because people said that that's the that's the stupidest arrest I've ever heard in my life. And arrested for pancakes.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

What are you in for? Pancakes. Yeah. Yeah, pancakes.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Yeah, there we go. And the uh uh we decided that we were going to change that law, that one little law in Portland, Oregon, and that threw me into the larger disability movement. And because I was a speaker and I was totally motivated, uh I became uh one of the uh uh uh main people in the disability movement, and I I ended up writing the uh rules and regulations for the enforcement of the ADA and uh working for the uh Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions and making sure that vets were going to be covered uh under that. And uh what I knew was this, and I know that you know it, and Bill Austin knows it totally. I told him once, and he he is like he'd come home. I said very simply, uh when you save someone's dream, you have saved their lives. 100% and what you do at Starkey is you save people's dreams. And by doing that, you are saving their lives.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Oh, that's a power a powerful message, and for for those listening to this podcast who are involved in service provision, you know, taking our technology and then using their expertise to provide the outcomes to individuals. I think several points here that you've made are so powerful of thinking beyond the audiogram. Too often I find, you know, people start, you get in you get busy and you start looking at the hearing test and as you're going through and you're just thinking about what technology you're going to apply without thinking about you're working with more than the person's ears. You're working with that individual and everything that brought them up to that day in their journey. And how many times have people with hearing loss and other disabilities heard what they can't do? And understanding that I think is equally, if not more, important to making sure that you're matching whatever gain targets to get a little, uh speaking a little jargon for the people on the on the that are professionals listening to this, it there's so much beyond the audiogram that goes into that individual seated across from you. And and I think you've articulated that so well.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Well, the the other issue is that it's it's it's not a one-horse race. Uh for persons with disabilities, uh, if we're talking about employment or socialization, they're also dealing with someone else. So uh changing attitudes towards people with disabilities, important, but we also realized that we need to go to employers, we need to go to teachers, we need to go to counselors, we need to go to the general public, and not just change their attitudes about people with disabilities, we need to change their attitudes about themselves, about their ability to work with people with disabilities, about uh how to focus not on the person's disability, but the person with the disability. And that's how employment, that's how socialization, that's how all of this happens. And it's a partnership.

SPEAKER_04 25:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

And one of the, you know, you've got the the technology down better than, in my opinion, any company even dreamt of having it. Uh but what we have found out, and what I found out, is that teaching people with disabilities to effectively interact and make other people feel comfortable with them uh is one of the keys to everyone being successful. And uh that is what we focused on, not just the law, but uh I designed a program years ago for young people with disabilities, teaching them how to work better with their teachers, how to work better with their classmates, how how to uh even work better with with their relatives with with having having the uh uh having the disability. And I think that uh uh there is a uh uh if you if you don't mind uh uh a Starkey story that I love. Sure. Uh just to illustrate what I wanted to say. Years ago, I got a call from a counselor here in uh where I live, and I live in Boise, Idaho.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Oh, beautiful area.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

And they said, we've we've got a little girl here who's deaf and uh hearing aids aren't working for, and the mother doesn't know what to do, and she's very poor, and she wanted to know if someone could come teach her little girl how to be a good deaf girl, a proper deaf girl. And I thought, is this call really happening? I said, okay, I'll I'll come talk to her, and I I I did. I went and I and I talked with her. She's a beautiful little child. Uh she was 12, I think, at the time. And I I said, let me see your hearing aids. And you know, see, when I came back, I could there were no hearing aids at work for me because of the frequencies and they the distortion too, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

When I when I when I when I when I was in Vegas, I was asked to give a talk. I I met I met Bill, I met Panny, and uh uh Bill found out that I'd help with the ADA and uh uh I I had a hearing impairment, and uh that's waving a red flag in front of a ball. And uh he says, Well, we got to fix you up. And then I said the words that uh I I I thought he was going to attack me. Uh I said, hearing aids don't work for me. And he said, You're coming.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Yeah, that placed a limit on him, and he took that as a personal challenge.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

He did. And I I said, they just don't have the technology. And he said, We're gonna, you come in here, we're gonna, we're gonna look. I said, I said, what if you don't have anything that'll help? He looked at me quite seriously and said, then we'll invent something.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

I believe him. Yeah, I yeah, I work with the man too, and and I know exactly what you you knew what you were doing, and you placed a limit on him to challenge to see how he could help you better. And he took it personally, and he continues to this day, as you know.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

And he did it.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Yeah, and he did it, and he continues to be one of the most innovative guys that I that I was and his energy, I wish I could bottle it. Um, you know, even at 80, um, he has more energy than most 50-year-olds.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

Anyway, I I I I called Bill immediately. Yeah, I said, I got a little girl, and the mother wants me to teach her to be a deaf girl. Bill says, How soon can you get her on a plane? Yep. Mother too.

unknown 29:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

And we did. And of course, he of course did what Bill does. Yeah. And she came back, she had wonderful hearing aids. But here's my point. A year later, even though she's got the best hearing aids you can have, a year later, she calls and says, I'm not doing, I was doing well in school, but now I'm not doing well in school. And I think I might have to quit. I said, Why? And she said, Because of this. The hearing aids are great, but sometimes people will not look at me or the way they'll they'll speak, and I won't hear what they have to say. And so I'll say to them, What did you say? Could you repeat that? What was that again? And then they'll just look at me like they don't want to talk to me anymore. And when I ask them to repeat it, you know what they'll say? They'll say, Never mind. It wasn't important. And I said, What do you really hear when they say that to you? She said, They're saying, never mind, you're not important.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

You're not important.

unknown 30:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

And then I don't want to talk to them anymore, and I'm not doing well in school anymore. She said, Do you have a solution for that? Do you have a technical solution for that? I said, No. I have a human solution for that that works with the technical solution. I said, What is it? I said, here's exactly what I want you to do. I want you to go to school tomorrow, and I want you to find everyone who said that to you, all the teachers, all the students. And I want you to go up to them and say, you know, sometimes I don't hear so well. I've got hearing aids and they're wonderful, but some maybe the way you speak or the cadence or whatever. And I'll ask you to repeat it. I'd like you to know why I'm doing that. I'm doing that because I want to know what you're saying. I'm doing it because you're important to me, and what you say is important to me. That's why I'm asking you to repeat it. Because I care and you're important. She went to over 30 people in her school and said that, the people she was having problems with. Guess what happened? It all worked. And they realized, oh my, because she said, if you say something to me and I say something back and it doesn't make sense to you how it started, I give you permission to say, What did you think I said?

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

And let me tell you the best way to communicate with me, and let's work all of this out. So the combination that will work the best is the best technology in the world, coupled with the communication, interaction, love, and goodwill and patience of both the people involved in the communication. And I believe that that would be a killer combination to help people who are hearing impaired. And you've got the, you've got the, oh my gosh, have you got the technology? But uh we're training young people to do that, to explain to people here's what you need to do to effectively work with me, and here's what, here's what do I need to do to work with you, and make people feel comfortable. Making that linkage will set you up for life with a job, with your education, with all of that. So it's that wonderful combination between the two.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Absolutely. And it's the you know, the technology and then the caring of the caring of the two individuals in the communication and the caring of the professional to help understand the challenges faced by the individual that will you can you can't accomplish everything with technology alone or caring alone. You need you need both in order to achieve that solution. And then those simple tools, I think you know, you've really provided some ways for young professionals in our field to advocate for their patience and advocate by ensuring. I mean, Tim Shriver talks about the inclusion revolution within Special Olympics. And I know that's you know, a kind of also a part of your message, too, is really not thinking about what that disabled person is labeled with or what they can't do, but trying to provide access and accessibility and with with ADA with what you've done to ensure that they have the opportunities to be included in life.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

And disability in and of itself is not a bad thing.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

No. No, think about how it changed your trajectory. The challenge that you had puts you on a different path than you ever would have had if you hadn't had adversity.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

You know what people with disabilities tell me when we we ask them, what makes you successful? And what they'll say is, while the disability is a challenge, the challenge itself educates me. Yeah. Uh and we say, well, what characteristics have you developed because of your disability? Uh and one person said, Well, uh, creativity. What if you're in a wheelchair and you're at home and and you've got uh uh kitchen cabinets and you have to get the plate up uh, how do you do that? You've you've got to be creative. And we put we put a uh uh uh I don't want to say line that cheapens it, but but we put a little saying together, uh, and the disability community has sort of embraced it. We say is my disability has given me the gift, the the genius of creativity based on necessity.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

And so if you were gonna hire someone, wouldn't you want someone who's creative? Of course. Absolutely. Also, what if I told you that the disability will give you confidence? How will it give you confidence? Well, because you're gonna be challenged. I mean, when you're challenged, sometimes you're gonna fail. But that's okay because you know what confidence is? Confidence isn't that you'll never fail. Confidence is that when you do struggle, you will get up again and you will go on. Nelson Mandela said it best. You know what he said? He said, I never fail, I never lose. And I thought, well, that is about as arrogant as anything I've ever heard in my life. Well, how's he gonna follow this up? And he said, I don't fail. I either win or I learn.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

Yeah, that's great. Win or learn. You don't win or not the alternate win or lose. Yeah, it's win or win.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

You win or learn. That's I learn from it. Just like that little girl learned how to make people feel comfortable with her. We're working with a big company, and and one of their top executives uh had a major hearing loss, and he was about ready to lose his job because he he he would have meetings and he couldn't keep track of it. He was trying to people would start talking and interrupting, and he wouldn't know who's talking. And and and uh uh we talked with him and said, Well, what can we learn from this? And he says, Well, I am in charge, but uh I don't know what to do. And I said, Well, why don't we talk to them? And we got the group together and he said, This is my problem when we talk. I'm not sure who's talking, and I lose about a third of your conversation. It's hard to catch up, and you know, important. And one of the one of the groups, this wasn't me, one of the group said, I remember in grade school before we talked, we had to raise our hand.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

One person at a time that way.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

One person at a time. So if we all did that, you'd know who's talking and you could focus on us right away, couldn't you? And he said, Yeah, they did that. And he he has one of the he had one of the most successful departments in a multinational corporation when they thought they were gonna have to let him go because of his hearing loss, because he was able to communicate with the people about what his needs were. So that that wonderful technology, but most important, it is the caring, it is the belief. Your folks, the most important thing that you give your customers is not the technology. Yeah, the most important thing you give your customers is your belief and faith in their future.

SPEAKER_01 38:23

Absolutely. Well, and you know, I think so many things that you said there. We should all learn in in conversation to raise our hands so we're not talking over each other. But it is especially useful for those with hearing loss to minimize the background, to know who's talking, to be visually be able to see that. And just such a wonderful example of how innovation sometimes comes out of tech, not out not related to technology, that raising the hand and turn taking can provide benefits in excess of where the technology can. But uh I want to transition and want to say, first of all, I mean, how cool is it? Not many of us have had a movie made of our life or a portion of our life. And actually uh someone I know very well, Steven Swalish was the director of The Music Within, the movie where Ron Livingston played you, uh Michael Sheen was in it, Rebecca De Mornier, Leslie Nielsen, I think played somebody we know uh in that. And it's a wonderful film that really chronicles um your life story, uh at least a portion of it. And I would encourage people to uh I'm sure it's out there on Netflix or some uh some of the streaming services where they can find it and and learn a little bit more about what it was that uh was your life story up until uh you know the point where you uh worked to uh to drive change with ADA and with attitudes about those with disability. And but now I want to transition to what you're up to today, because I see we're the this time has flown by and we're we're almost out of time already. But um you know, you talk about technology, and we got a pretty good technologist working at Stark Air, Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Achtan Bulmick, um, comes from Intel, but he's been with us now for five years and really helping drive uh the use of artificial intelligence, uh, the use of embedded sensors and hearing aids, and I know you're wearing those devices, and you mentioned that you feel they're quite sophisticated. What areas do we need to continue to work on and do better? And and and uh what other advice do you have for technologists working in this field that is ultimately about changing humanity?

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Well, I I I I don't fool over on the engineering side, uh Archon is doing wonderful things because he is not just technology, it's the human side. He and his son, his son is a prodigy, uh uh working to develop uh early warning systems for people with disabilities with all the uh, oh gee, the fires and tornadoes and all the climate change stuff, uh to give them an early warning in communication and to set something up which is marvelous in saving life. What I say is let us marry the the best of technology with the best of the the humanity and teach teach people with disabilities to reach out and communicate and teach people who work with people with disabilities on how to effective effectively uh communicate as well. Uh I'm putting together a program on how to teach people with disabilities to make other people feel comfortable with their disability. Uh uh and and that that would be for hearing or cerebral palsy or or or or whatever. And trust me, uh working on that now. And uh I want to write it in such a way that that that I can give it to Starkey and all all your people can have that, not only to say, here's the technology, but here's what you can do to realize your dreams and and and recruit people to be part of of who you are. And and and and to look at the disability not as a tragedy, but to look at it as a learning experience. And I know there's time, but I want to, if I can, if it'll only take two minutes, can I talk at it? Yes. I wrote something the other day. And I thought of Sarkey when I wrote it, and if you don't mind, and if you like, I'll I'll send it to you if anyone wants this. But I I wrote this originally uh uh uh uh for a group of people who tried to give people jobs. Okay, so this is called baggage or backpack. Okay, when companies consider hiring someone, they may be worried that the person they're interviewing is carrying baggage. The answer to that question is probably yes. We all carry baggage of one kind or another. As many of my friends did in my generation, I came home from Vietnam with my share of baggage, a hearing loss, a traumatic brain injury, and agent orange poisoning. However, I learned from my experiences, and I no longer think of what happened to me as baggage. I embraced it. I learned from it. What was once my baggage now has become my backpack. Not something burdensome and heavy that I've Grudgingly carry. It is now something valuable and precious that teaches lessons and develops new skills and inspires me to be creative every day. Helen Keller once said, the road of life has many curves, but a curve is not a dead end unless you choose not to make the turn. Turn your baggage into your backpack and help others do so as well. Their and your greatest journey is still ahead of you. Believe in others so that they may believe in themselves. Lesson taught, lesson learned.

SPEAKER_01 44:47

Whoa. Okay, I I can't follow up with anything after that. Please do send that to us. And for those listening to this podcast, um, we'll make it available to them because it's just beautiful. And um may life for everyone move from that, you know, into the backpack from their baggage. And I think it is with without the baggage, it's hard to transform into the backpack to provide that opportunity for learning. And I think you said it I can't go any further, and we're just gonna stop. I do want to say uh for Achen, I I appreciate your sharing that anecdote about your work uh with Rowan. And I would also say that Ava, his daughter, I don't know whether you've had a chance to meet her yet, but she's equally brilliant and focused both on the technology and the humanity. And I think if for each of us that that worries about what technology means for our future, the humanity in combination with technology can achieve great things. And I think what you said about backpacks uh and baggage is so telling. And I appreciate very much your sharing the time with us today on this podcast, and I and it's just a privilege and honor to speak with you.

SPEAKER_02 46:01

Well, thank you. And I I I just have to say just one thing. A lot of people don't know. The Starkey family, Bill and Tanny, inspired me and my wife. They saved my life when I was not doing well. We now have adopted ten homeless children, and we are raising them. Uh and my role model for what's important in life is Bill and Tanney and your the family of Starkey.

SPEAKER_01 46:40

Well, you are part of our family too, Richard. And and I can't tell you how much uh I appreciate your sitting with us today and uh and sharing that. And please let me know if there's anything I can do for any of those ten or any others. Um, you are part of the family, and family takes care of each other.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

Oh, trust me.

SPEAKER_01 46:59

If any of them has a hearing loss, you'll be the first to hear about it. That's a deal. Well, uh, we appreciate very much uh our listeners for listening to this episode of Starkey Soundbites. And if you enjoyed this conversation with Richard Pimentel, please rate and review us on your preferred podcast platform. You can also follow us or hit subscribe so that you're sure not to miss a single episode. And we'll look forward to seeing and hearing you next time. And thank you again, Richard.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

Thank you. I appreciate it.