Carl Richardson is the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) coordinator for the Massachusetts State House. Between 1986 and 1990, he attended Emerson College. Diagnosed with Ushers Syndrome, Carl is both legally blind and hearing impaired. In addition to a guide dog and cane, he uses adaptive technology such as hearing aids, screen readers, and audio descriptions.
From 2001 to 2004, Carl worked as a marketing executive for the WGBH Educational Foundation, which creates educational content for school-age youths on a variety of subjects, including arts and sciences. Learn more about WGBH's program here.
ACB Audio Description Project
Carl is the co-chair of the Audio Description Project under the American Council of the Blind. This effort aims to make visual imagery accessible to blind audiences whether it be at public events, live theater, or recorded media. It maintains an index of all described content, hosts audio description conferences and events, works to create an accreditation process for professional audio describers, and coordinates with media companies. In his time there, Carl was worked with online streaming services such as Disney+, Amazon Prime, Paramount Plus, and HBO Max. Learn more about the project here.
Picture This Podcast
With co-host Brian Charlson, Carl produces a podcast on audio description titled Picture This. Many of its 35 episodes include interviews with professionals in the field while other episodes involve trips to movie theaters and other venues to enhance their deep dive into the subject. Check out the podcast here, or find it on your favorite podcatcher.
State House ADA Coordinator
Carl serves as a coordinator for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to ensure all programs and activities at the State House are accessible to all. He works with legislators and community stakeholders on initiatives to continuously improve accessibility. Past improvements include installing electric doors, providing training for employees, captioning for live events, providing resources to legislature, and a number of other accomplishments. Future plans include Braille production services, wayfinding services for visitors, safety sensors for elevators, an advisory council with members from the disabled community, and much more. Learn more about these initiatives here.
Trades Win Interview
This section is an except from our book, Sailing Farther Than the Eye Can See.
Carl Richardson, ADA Coordinator at the State House in Boston, MA loves his work. “My favorite part,” he says, “is having an impact on the lives of people with disabilities.” Carl is passionate about putting people in touch with the resources and services they need so that they can not only live fully, but also so that they can take equal part in society and make a difference of their own: “I want to work in access for the rest of my life” because when people have “full and equal access” they are empowered and “they have a voice.”
Carl identifies as DeafBlind. He was born with Usher Syndrome which affects both sight and hearing, and over time he was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa. As a boy, he attended Boston School for the Deaf where he learned how to speak. At present, he uses two hearing aids and makes use of a cane and a guide dog.
As a young man, Carl became interested in film production and started taking some film classes. He landed a job on a film set, but unfortunately, during this time, his vision and hearing grew worse, resulting in a very discouraging outcome: “While I was working on one of the movies, I knocked down the lights and I destroyed one of the sets and I got fired. That kind of did me in at the time and I didn't know how to handle it.” At that point, Carl had to decide whether to stay in LA or come back to Massachusetts and he chose the latter. Little was he to guess that that move would bring him closer to a job where he could flourish and help others to flourish, too.
In Boston, Carl found a job at Media Access Group at WGBH. It took some real effort, he remembers: “I networked, I called, I bugged people. I finally got to a guy by the name of Larry Goldberg at the media access group at WGBH. I met with him, had an informational interview. I don't know, six months later, nine months later, they called me in for a real job interview to be the marketing person. And all the while I was working, I was doing different things.” He was hardly idle as he waited for that call, and during that time he served as a marketing person for the Museum of Science and as a fund raiser who helped to bring in government money and donations from foundations.
At last he landed the job at WGBH and began a productive couple of years working in media access, doing closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing as well as descriptive video services for the bind (now called audio description) which, with Carl’s film production background, was a perfect fit. He loved that work, but it came to an end when WGBH hit a rough patch financially and had to let him go because he didn’t have seniority on his side.
Out he went again to find a job. He attended classes on how to create a resume, he networked, and he attended a job fair. At last landed at a job at the Secretary of State's office answering phones, a job he knew didn’t tap his full potential but which he took for the experience it offered: “I took a job with the Secretary of State's office doing what I felt was beneath me at the time, which was answering phones on a phone bank and answering questions about, "Where do I find this? What do I do?" That sort of thing. But I needed to update my resume and be visible.” That turned out to be a winning strategy because after only a few months answering phones, a job opened up to be the ADA Coordinator for the Massachusetts State House. He applied and points out that it was the wealth of his past experience which was the deciding factor in winning him the position: “One of the things that got me the job is the fact that they had been sued by the disability community for not having their programs, activities, and services accessible. And one of the things that they were struggling with is how to do captioning. Well, I knew how to do captioning because I worked at WGBH.”
The job has turned out to be a perfect fit and it has evolved as Carl has evolved. In the beginning, he was most excited about the access it gave him to new technologies, to video, film, and television, and to the realm of politics. At this point, he says, “What keeps me motivated is making a difference in the lives of people with disabilities, which benefits everybody.”
He shares some wonderful stories about the direct impact his work has had on the lives of people with disabilities. Even simple things make a difference. He noticed, for instance, that the power button at the wheelchair-accessible entrance kept breaking, possibly because kids banged the button repeatedly. “And so what I did,” he reports, “was I simply installed an electronic eye on the door much like when you go into a grocery store. Now the door opened automatically, and everybody loved that. Parents who were pushing babies in their strollers, or people who were running off to the airport with their luggage or caterers who were carrying stuff for an event at the State House – that $800 electronic eye made a difference for everybody who uses that door.” A satisfying solution that helps everyone: that’s Carl’s specialty.
While Carl says that much of his work is simply “grinding away” behind the scenes without seeing the effect of what he’s doing, there are some notable exceptions, and these inspire him to stay energized and keep going. Years ago, a key program for deafblind people was on the chopping block. A deafblind woman got in touch with Carl and asked him to set up a meeting with a certain government official so that she could make her case for keeping the program. Carl set up the meeting and advised her not to prepare a set presentation with statistics and facts, but rather, to simply speak from the heart. That’s exactly what she did, revealing that this program was vital not only to her functioning but even to the continuance of her life. At the end of her impassioned plea, says Carl, “You could've heard a pin drop.” The legislator heard her out and was preparing to thank her and leave when suddenly he had a change of heart. “All of a sudden he stopped, and he said, no, wait. And he started to choke. And he said, thank you for making me remember why I am in public service. You're all set. Your program will not be cut.” This is one highlight among many in a career that has helped thousands of people across Massachusetts and will in time help thousands more.
Carl has golden advice to share with job seekers. First and foremost, he says, is “Network, network, network.” Tell people you’re looking for work; let your connections help you find opportunities. Ask for advice from those you admire and from people who are already working in the field you hope to enter. Carl assures us that most people love to be asked to share their wisdom: “Folks love to hear, ‘Hey, you’re successful! I want to hear how you’re doing it.’: Above all, don’t give up and don’t apologize for your visual impairment. Carl claims that he may have wasted a year or two of his life resisting the idea of using a cane and says that it’s far better to accept what’s happening and “put your energy where it counts.” Focus on what you can do rather than what you can’t and get busy right now, even if you don’t have a job yet: “Do something, even if you're not gainfully employed, volunteer, keep your resume updated, become an advocate, network, learn technology.”
In the end, Carl resists the objectification to which blind people are often subjected in films, literature, and media: “We’re either a people to be pitied or we are a superhero, and we’re amazing, like we are climbing Mount Everest. Well, you know what? Most of us are not to be pitied. And most of us are not superheroes.” Carl claims the right to live and work like anyone else, “to pay bills and have a fun life at the same time.” He’s not interested in being pitied or praised. “I don't want to be a superhero and I don't want to be pitied,” he says. “And I hope that when I interact with people in the society, that's how they see me: as a regular person.” We think Carl is pretty impressive, not because he’s a successful blind man, but because the work he does helps so many other people to live and enjoy their own ordinary, extraordinary lives.