Mariella Paulino: Founder of Project Hearing
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Mariella Paulino creates systems and tools that center on helping people interact better with the world around them. As a Deaf technologist, she has worked in tech as a software developer, designer, and now as a project manager and is passionate about the intersection of technology with social impact initiatives that create inclusion, accessibility, and equity.
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S01E05 Mariella Paulino.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe
Welcome to the Enabled Disabled podcast. I'm your host, Gustavo Serafini. I was born with a rare physical disability called PFFG. My journey has been about self acceptance, persistence and adaptation. On the show, we'll explore how people experience disability, how the stories we tell ourselves can both enable and disable our vulnerability is the foundation for strength and why people with disabilities can contribute more than we imagined. I hope that leaders, companies, clinicians, families and friends will better understand our capacity to contribute to the world and help enable us to improve it.
Mariella Paulino is an advocate, technologist and founder of Project Hearing. Project Hearings Mission is centered on education, building partnerships with allies that are committed to inclusion efforts. Engaging with people in the community to learn about assistive technology, tools and resources and advocating for the full inclusion of people with hearing disabilities in society. Mariella is a unique combination of big vision, thinker and practical problem solver, her willingness to learn her resilience and optimism consistently impressed me. I believe Mariola will make the world a better place, and after hearing this episode, I think you'll come to believe it to.
We'd love to hear your feedback and share your own stories on our Facebook group, just search for enable disable. Thank you. So happy that we could connect that you could be here with us today. A lot of things that I want to talk to you about. We've already obviously had some interesting conversations, but I'd like to dig into more of your story and what you're working on and how you're helping to change the world. So can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, where you come from?
What your what your childhood was like, the things that kind of shaped you as in your journey.
Absolutely. So my name is on the mannequin from the public. I emigrated to New York City when I was seven years old. New country and culture, new language. And then a few months after I came to New York City with my mom and my sister, I contracted something called bacterial meningitis. It is a disease is actually going to be the anniversary of that on March 22nd. So I have lots of feelings. So I was seven years old.
I contracted something bacterial meningitis, and I became deaf in both ears. At this time, I had already developed language, Spanish. And there was this all of this technology that was new, relatively new at the time called a cochlear implant, which is a device that I use on my ears to hear actually have my secondary device. So I decided to get my second done this December. So I use this device and it connects to my hearing to allow me to hear.
So I got my cochlear implant on my right side because my mom wanted me to have the option to decide to get the second here at a later point in time, which I just did this December and learn English as a second language was fully mainstream. School was always the only person with a disability. And now that I'm an adult and that I have grown up in the system as a person with a disability, grown up in the educational system, gone through a very extensive career in the government and higher education, I have all of these experiences as a person with a disability that made me feel like I have to give back and share really my experiences.
What has worked for me has not worked for me. What other people can do to make the world more accessible to me is that Saturday we hosted a workshop, 15 minutes for captioning to sell everything you need to know about hearing accessibility and inclusion. We decided that the Saturday and it was the first workshop of the year, we have more events coming for accessibility. So that's pretty much kind of like Mariola in a quick summary.
Fantastic. So I'm I guess as somebody who also has a I have a physical disability. So one of the things that interests me about people's story that I don't think we talk about enough is. How we how we adapt it to the world. Right, so it's not just the focus on disability as as a whole person. How did we, as unique people, adapt to things, adapt to challenges? Sometimes the disability plays a part, sometimes it doesn't.
So for you, for example, was what was what was learning English like with your implants? How did you adapt to a new language?
That's hard. I think for a very long time as a child, I thought I was in a nightmare and I was going to wake up from this nightmare and I was going to be able to hear normally again, the last day I lost my hearing, my mom had taken us to a park with lots of kids. And I remember being in this park and what felt like spring. And I remember my mom calling my name, you know, and I could hear my mom I could hear my mom's voice in the midst of all these kids screaming.
And I think my mother's voice is one of those sounds that is so ingrained in my head, I know when my mother's voice sounds like. And so when I first got the cochlear implant, I remember that it sounded very robotic. It sounded like. A robot is something like Mickey Mouse. It sounded horrible and they think that they hit your hearing is really developed as a result, millions of years of evolution, the way they the way it's designed is this beautiful evolutionary mechanism.
And so what the court does is it creates artificial hearing. It will never be perfect. I there are sounds that I'm not able to hear. So initially, and this sounds very robotic, but the human brain is such a beautiful thing and it is always adapting, always like figuring out how to do things when you lose your hearing, other senses kind of pick up and make up, which is actually really important because people who have hearing disabilities are better drivers than people who not have hearing disabilities because their sense of eyesight is just a little bit more expanded.
So when I first lost my hearing, disability was very, very, very difficult. But I receive a lot of support. I received services from the NYU Cochlear Implant Center, which is like the number one hospital in the world from like the number one cochlear implants. And at that time I received speech and hearing therapy. So I was getting all of the support and all of this community that was that wanted me to be successful. I was getting all of the resources that I needed.
And I also had, which I think is the most important thing, a very supportive family that did not feel any different, anything that my sister could do. I was also expected to do because I'm the oldest. So and also my mom, she was very much about toughening me up because when I had the bacterial meningitis, it not only affected my hearing, it also affected my ankles and my life, but it completely destroyed the cartilage. And so I had to wear crutches and a lot of my time.
And there was a time when my mom, my sister and I, we went to the beach. My sister was like six, six years old at the time. She was running circles around me. She was just running and I was in the sand and I was struggling with my crutches and I felt my mom staring at me. And for one minute I was in the crutches and I kind of turned really quickly. And then the crutch got caught in the sand and I felt.
And I saw my mom standing and she looks so angry and she came over to me. She took the crutches, she took the crutches and she threw them in the dumpster. And she said, You're going to walk. And I am seven, eight years old. Just recovering from this very traumatic thing. And my mom, like, you're going to walk and I'm like, Mommy, I don't want to walk her. It is so difficult to everybody down.
And I'm crying. And my mom said, it doesn't matter. We're going to walk slow as a family. You're going to keep up if you need to take breaks. We will take a break. We are going to walk. And that's the same mentality that my mom has put everything else she put like Sesame Street on the television I grew up watching, like friends, an English speaking television to improve my English, my sister, because she did not have a disability and she was younger.
She was picking up English much quicker. My mom was in English all the time. So I hope we will speak Spanish outside of the house. We would be required to speak English. So it was like a lot of toughening up within the family structure. A lot of you can do it. A lot of your disability is one aspect of who you are, but not the whole aspect. And that commitment for inclusion, that that pervasive you can do it like even Gustavo, like the L.A. Times that I play music on the radio next landmark in the media or Life or Cannito Mendes and everybody in the house would be singing.
But this was before Google. So when my mom went to she and my sister would have a cassette player on the radio and they would be with the songs and then they would write the lyrics by hand so that I could read the lyrics, memorized the song. And when they came on, Baby Bob and I would be there with my little notes following along and singing with my family. And those are the types of things that made me realize that I need to be included.
And it's not that I'm excluded because of my disability, it's that I need tools. I mean, I need accessibility. And all of these things really began and.
That's incredible. So. I had some similar experiences, but what what really strikes me, one is they enabled you to succeed, right? They said you can do it, you are capable. We're going to help you when you need help and then you're going to find your way. That's something that I was going to bring up, which is interesting is we'll talk we'll get into this more later. But when we meet on Saturdays with project hearing in your group, you like to play a song for everybody before we start.
So it's really interesting to me because I've talked to other people who are have some type of hearing impairment who don't don't really listen to music, don't really like music. So what I think you just answered the question. This is how you develop the relationship with music and why it was so important for you. It actually made you feel included.
I mean, like, look behind me. There are two guitars here. There is an acoustic design. I mean, these are my partners. But it's kind of like I am just is this pervasive music in my life. Like I am a part of this healing world and it is part of my family. It is a part of my culture, and it is just something that I need to have certain tools to make it accessible for me. It's not that it's exclusive.
It's just I need tools to make it accessible like this. I hear what I'm wearing. This is a pilot that I use. It connects directly to my hearing aids to make the sound of music clearer, to help me here than the losses of music. So it's just it's just about like finding the right technology.
And do you when you wear that and you listen to music and it makes it clear, is that something that the more music you listen to, the more you can pick out those nuances and the more you can appreciate it. So your brain is also improving how you hear one hundred percent. So that's one of the things that I've learned from this year, because this year it's kind of like 20 years ago when I first got the call and then everything sounds terrible, it sounds like all the time.
So it's really about forcing your country. The more you watered, the more it grows. The more I can develop, the more its roots. And so the more you train your brain to hear music, to experience new sounds, the more the more you kind of just like putting in your brain, the more you align your brain to understand.
Fantastic, and I think so what? Why do you think? And not to generalize, but why do you think other people with hearing impairments don't have that connection with music, as you think, because maybe they haven't they haven't tried or there wasn't that strong emotional connection when they were growing up? Like, is it is their. What do you think?
I think it's a combination of things, and this is actually one of the reasons why I'm considering going into theology, I want to become the Thawra because it's also a lack of representation. Let's look at geology office right now. I actually did a little bit of a study last summer and I wanted to see how accessible it was to make a geologist appointment for you, to make a geologist appointment here in New York City just to go to a clinic to get a checkup.
I found that 90 percent. Of the clinics here in New York City, you have to call to make an appointment. Now, that is the equivalent of you having a wheelchair and you create this building for wheelchair repairs. But the entrance to getting to the building doesn't have a ramp, has five steps, is up on the fifth floor. No elevator it is. How are you going to make audiologist appointments to cater to our population that has hearing disability and then not provide online appointments that may not provide email's, not provide that functionality.
And that is a big problem within the hearing disability community. We don't make it accessible to receive the services that people need to be able to succeed like that. Just the very first step, making an appointment to get evaluated and 90 percent of all theologist offices in New York City. Don't have that so is a lot of factors that prevent people with disabilities from getting the resources they need, getting the support they need, and again, like I've already told you a little bit about my mom, my mom is not the type of person that takes finance.
Like she'll make it happen. She'll she'll figure out a way to get me in that Feilding and up on the fifth floor. But I guess it's also not everybody has that type of support. So all of these things make the, the very joy of being able to, to get the services you need to have a positive experience with music or with language.
Difficult does. So do you still go to NYU when you are trying to get when you're having an update on the cochlear implants or just to check in? Or are you going to you know, is it like a kids only program? I know for me it's very difficult to find a doctor that treats adults with my condition. So after 18 years old, they just kind of throw you to the throw you to the wolves and you have to find, you know, a specialist on your own, you know, so it's it's a there's a big gap in in medicine here with that one hundred percent.
You are right on the money. And that's one of the big challenges just really cause disability services in general, but particularly in disability. Aletta, services for people with disabilities, our focus on pediatrics or geriatrics, children or older adults. So there's there's an entire population of people like you and me who are of working age. We're working with today. We're traveling and there are no services for us. And the reason for that, if you really take a minute to think about it, is because the Americans with Disabilities Act, the first piece of federal legislation, is only about 30 years old, like it's just 30 years ago that people with disabilities were given rights at the federal level, weren't given access to an education at the at a federal level, we are seen as.
Members of society before the a.D.A, people with disabilities were continuously institutionalized for continuously put into like in hospitals away from society 30 years ago, if I had had a hearing disability, I would have just been shot. That would have just been excluded. So it's really important for us to acknowledge that a lot of the things that we are seeing are the result. We are the first post a the a generation. And so people like you and me are creating these spaces that really cater to people like us, because so much of the work that exists within disability is really focused on really small children or older people.
And so there's this entire segment of the population that is not getting services or it's not getting the support that they need, which is why I created frighted hearing because I was having all of these. I was they you know, are you in college graduate testing the limits of, like, my independence, living away from home dating. And there were all these things that I was going now. Nobody was talking about it. There were no resources. And I was just, OK, this is the problem.
We need to there needs to be something about this, because I know that the problems and the challenges are having are not just personal. They are part of a larger issue.
So then you so can you talk about like let's talk about that, let's talk about project hearing, you gave us the why I would love because I think you tell the story really well. Can you give us the listeners a little bit of a background in case they don't know about the ADA, how it actually came about and how the hearing impairment community was actually fundamental towards I left time on this. Yes. So two years before the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is the first federal piece of legislation that decided that separate is not equal, when we talk about when we talk about disability, it was actually inspired two years prior by something known as deaf president.
Now, there's a college out in Washington, D.C. called Gallaudet University. And Gallaudet is the heart of deaf culture. It is the Mecca. It is like if you are a deaf person, it is it is a place to be because that is all about creating access and inclusion for people who have heart attacks. And two years before the signing of the ADA, the university had was considering three college presidents for it had had to install a new college president.
And there were three options. Two of the three options where people with disabilities, people who are familiar with deaf culture, people that you know, where ingrain in the very history that made Gallaudet, Gallaudet. And then you had a third candidate, a woman did not have a hearing disability, did not know that language, just did not have any connection to that, that the university had a question, what was she working as a professor, at least at Gallaudet before, like or they just nominated?
We don't know how she got nominated.
That is correct, sir. She if I remember correctly, she was the president at another college at the time and they just wanted to send in college for Gallaudet. So, yes. So they were like, so Gallaudet, the board of trustees, they were like, oh, we know that we have two highly qualified deaf candidates, but no, we don't want them. We want the healing process. The person who has no connection to Gallaudet, the person who has no connection to deaf culture history and the students at Gallaudet, they want that.
Oh, no, no, no. We are not about this side. The professors protested, the students protested. The alumni protest said it turned into a protest march. I locked down the school and there's this whole history behind the protest itself. But at the end of the day, the students won and the university overturned its decision and instituted its first deaf president. And that was the moment. Oh, my God. Just talking about it gives me shivers because it was the very first time in the history of the United States when a person with a with a disability had that much power, were people with disabilities, were really recognized as needing as being as capable as anyone else, if only they received the accommodations they needed to be successful.
And so the deaf president now movement inspire an entire new wave of civil rights legislation and and just kind of political power work within the disability community that two years later, two years later, I mean, this was tremendous, tremendous political implications. Two years later, you had the first President Bush signed the ADA. And that really changed from then. It's just I guess it was well, it was a moment.
Yeah, I still remember when it was passed, I was young, but I remember feeling really good that day that finally we have something. Something that that's supposed to help, that's supposed to give us more opportunities to. Do something to contribute to the world and to have the world. Adapt to us just a little bit.
One hundred percent, and if you really think about it, movements like the a.D.A are really a consequence of a lot of other social movements that were happening at the time. For example, you have Brown versus the Board of Education, which determined that separate will never be equal. And that's also one of the central pieces of legislation that pushed the ADA, because when you create when you liberate one group of people, you not only liberate that group of people, you're liberating an entire segment of the population.
You're giving people the idea that we all should have equal rights. We all deserve to be treated as human. We all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. So, yeah, and now we're here we are make this last few years, you're seeing all of this technology that Google came out with, Google Trends, you have Microsoft teams. You have like just all of this technology that is taking off and make there's some real focus on an accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities across the board.
So you are so let's talk let's get into project hearing. But just a little bit more about, I think, your expertize and your credentials like you are. You are a full stack developer. You are a technologist. Did you study this in college or did you learn it later?
I did so my very first job out of college, so let me give you the back story there. When I went to NYU and I said I wanted to be a lawyer, I was like, I want to fight for equality in the world. And then I took his name off that exam, the law school admission exam, the L.A. city.
Yes.
And I did fine. And then but there was just something in me that was like, this is not for you. This is not this is not it. And I really try to to listen to that little voice. And sometimes and I'll be honest with you sometimes, I guess make some major life decisions by flipping a coin. And I like that. That is how I chose for college. I was going to go to I flip a coin and I was way ahead NYU tales with another school I had.
And I was like, do I want to go to law school heads or tails? I died and I had to figure out a way to tell my mom, who was like all about me becoming a lawyer, that I wasn't going to love, that I wasn't going to go to law school, but I needed to have a really good reason. So there was this program right after college called I can't remember what it's called, but it was this program for people that had disabilities, who wanted to work in the federal government.
And I had applied. So the day of my graduation, I got a call. I'm about to walk up on the stage to shake hands and everything, but the dean and I get a call. I. Is this Mariella Pollino? Yes, this is she. Who is this and why is the Department of Defense? And I'm like. Oh, my God, what did I do? I'm going through every single thing I have ever done in my life.
Make. OK, and alive, because I had applied for this program like one year ago. I mean, this is how slow the federal government is getting a job in the federal government is. I have totally forgotten. I had applied. So like, hey, we want to interview you for an intern position with the Department of Defense in Virginia. Well, make sure. Whatever I going for them to do, get them to share, and I, I really wanted to leave New York City because.
I wanted to prove I felt like I had something to prove. I felt like I wanted to really test the limits of my independence, really prove that I could do it. So here I go. I had this job with the Department of Defense as an intern. And in that job, I got to work with a lot of lawyers, hated it. I hated it so much. I mean, I learned a lot from the job. I learned a lot about the federal government.
But, hey, did you feel happy there? So I had a friend whose name was mostly her name.
A real quick question. So you. This internship. What were you what were you doing in the internship that you had to work with so many lawyers?
It was so I was working for the office of the inspector general of the Department of Defense. The Office of the Inspector General is the agency that oversees the Department of Defense. So this is the agency that makes sure that nothing shady is happening within the Department of Defense. We're talking about administrative. Investigations are over. Yeah, yeah, so investigations by just over say so, lots of lawyers, lots of politics. And it wasn't it wasn't really my style.
I mean, it was a meeting someone I worked with some amazing people. And I learn a lot. But it wasn't what I wanted to do, especially when I was like 20. I was in my early twenties. I just wanted to have fun and go out and celebrate, you know, an election. And funny story here is that I think this was the second time that the Obama administration won because that what I go out into the streets, I'm just hanging out with friends, OK, having a drink, celebrating in front of the White House.
The next day, my supervisor calls me into her office and she said she she she opened up a TV and she said, Vanilla, is this you? I might add that she's like, wow, you know, you are supposed to be impartial, like you cannot share any political affiliation with any agency because we're doing oversight of the body. So that was a really nice battle because I have lots of opinions about things. OK, so it wasn't it wasn't the right fit, but there's that.
But I had a friend whose name is Michelle. I know her from my year. She was one year above me on Facebook, which was very hot at the time, and I just check her profile one day. I see she's traveling Monday. She's in Africa. The next day she's back in Italy. The next day she's in Florida. The next day she's in California. And I sent her a message and I'm like, Michelle. What do you do for work?
Are you like selling drugs, are you always traveling? So like, what are you doing? Like importing trucks? Like what is this? And, you know, actually, I'm a web developer and I'm like, I don't know what that is, but I want that as my job. So I was like, so how do you become a web developer? She told me that she has studied that at NYU and so she was very experienced in that.
But she told me about this program that had just launched called Code for Progress and called for progress, plus this program that was started by this one guy who made lots of money. His words, his description was he's a white guy with a beard who works in tech. And he had created he had worked in campaigns and data and he made millions of dollars from just, you know, that that he was going to these conferences. Everybody was a white guy with a funny bar and his Four-Square that really bother him.
And he wanted to see more diversity in tech. So he put his money where his mouth was and he created this fellowship program that was that was goal was to get diverse population and underrepresented groups and provide a space for them to learn. So she told me about this program called Kofa Progress. They pay me five thousand dollars every month for five months for me to learn how to cope. That's amazing. That is unheard of.
That's amazing.
So here I am in this job that I didn't particularly like. And then I have this friend who is traveling all over the world doing technology. And she tells me about this program called Political Progress My Luck, Just My Luck. And she told me about the program. It was the deadline for for the program. So I got a letter, no matter how mad mess of the application, by one minute before midnight I got in. And the reason why the program was so interesting to me was not just because of the career of being a software developer, but because I am really fascinated by the ways that technology was.
I was really fascinated at that time by the way that I saw technology moving. So this was around the time, the 2014 2015. Was around the time that Google was coming on the scene. This was the first time I had heard about over and oh my God, Google changed the game for me because I remember a few months before I found out about where I had gone to a party with a friend and in middle of nowhere, middle of nowhere, Virginia.
And then my friend disappeared me doing God knows what. And then I'm stuck in this house. I don't know anyone. I don't feel comfortable. I want to go home and I'm calling a taxi company. And the person that was on the other end, the other end of the line, I don't know if they were having a bad night, I I don't know what their issue was, but I pick up the phone and I'm like, please pick me up at one, two, three, four, Ababinili.
I have a hearing disability, I hate talking on the phone. It is the most difficult thing for me to do. Like I joked that I would exchange my first firstborn to not have to talk on the phone. I probably will inevitably not be very happy about that. But that is how strongly I feel about talking on the phone. I hate it. So I'm on the phone with Al Queda. Hey, I have a hearing disability. This is my address.
Please pick me up. The operator had a very heavy accent. I can not understand what they were saying. The second time I ask them to repeat themselves, he goes, What the fuck is your problem? Are you tied it? And I have to call my sister here in New York City at 4:00 in the morning to call a cab for me in Virginia so that I could go home. And so these experiences made me realize that as independent as I was, my hearing disabilities, they all prevented barriers that could be fixed by technology.
And the issue, the issue with telephones. Right. I'm going to take a guess. Here is a look. The quality of the audio is terrible.
One hundred percent the you can't sometimes it's useful to lip read and you can't do that because at least when we're seeing each other on video, if you don't understand me for some reason or whoever is speaking, you can try to read the lips. Right. And then there's no there's no transcription.
Exactly. And then there's also the issue of body language, which I am able to see because I'm able to see you. There's all this technology which is now available and it's also the way that the ear. So with my hearing equipment, this is the microphone, this face right here. So imagine having to kind of like put your phone at just the right angle and then the background noise is a nightmare. And so those experiences were really making me aware that technology had a very critical role to play in my own inclusion into the world.
So I found out about the scholarship. I told my mom, hey, mom, you know, I don't think the school is going to work. She was very angry about that for a minute. But sometimes you just got to listen to that little voice. And so I went ahead. I did the fellowship. I learn how to code the program, eventually decided to hire me as a staff. I want to have got my master's in Georgetown so we could use a few more times.
But it's always coming back to private. It's always coming back to trying to do my own thing. It's always coming back to trying to find solutions for problems that nobody else is trying to figure out. So I work as a software developer, as project manager. I've worked as the chief operations officer. I travel all the way to Jamaica to have them like to help a team of people in Jamaica. I create their own tech program. And all of these things have been possible because of this little piece of technology that allows me to here, that allows me to have conversations like the one we're having today.
So let's talk about project hearing. So tell us. When did you know, when did you get started? It was pretty recently. And tell us about the you know, the the big event that you had a little over a year ago and some of the work that you've been doing with people like Google.
All right. So here, let me just close this tab. So I started hearing back into the House and unofficially back in two thousand and 14 to 15. The reason I started it was because I was driving in Virginia, which is the worst place for speeding. If you look up, if you go even half a mile above the speed limit, you will get pulled over. It is no joke because because you're such a good driver, you should be allowed to speed.
Right.
Not the case, not like they I don't know what it is about, but every time you mess up just a little something like that. Well, well, well, well, well behind me. But that's beside the point. So this was the first time I had gotten pulled over ever and. The siren is ringing behind my car. And my mom and I have practiced this a few times before, 1/2 at three and nine. And we. The problem was the thing that we have not practice because, you see, my mom is very, very much about practice.
My mom is very fact that she's all about she wanted to prepare me for everything that was coming. So what we had not prepared for or anticipated was that the officer would be speaking over the speaker. So the officer is giving me coming over the speaker. To me, those commands sound like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I cannot make out what he was saying. So he was telling me probably turn off your vehicle.
Step out of the vehicle. I don't know, because I couldn't hear what he was saying. I just I'm frozen in fear through your nine and then the game of it, maybe eventually the officer comes out of his vehicle and on the holster. Now, this was during the time of summer. It was hot. Trayvon Martin issue has just happened. And now may I want to thank today. He comes out with Tamarindo. Soon as he does that, officer, I have a hearing disability, I could not hear what you were saying.
When I say that the situation, the stress, the anxiety, the that the officers kind of like the, you know, just chill. Eventually, because of this beautiful smile on your face, you eventually just go off with a warning. But he said before he let me go, he said, you know, you really need to figure out what you're going to do about this disability because it could have escalated. In my mind. I'm thinking no shit, but.
And I ask him, well, what do you what do you suggest I do? And he said, there's no problem it out.
That's terrible.
And it's terrible. Yes, it is terrible, but it made me think in the emergency, I'm the one best emergency I need to be able to communicate, I doubt is that I need to be able to communicate to the officer that I have a hearing disability because officers deal with all sorts of people all day long. So I needed time to figure out a way to communicate that I had a hearing disability. And so what I did was that I decided to pursue my masters in communications at Georgetown to to study.
How people with disabilities like me interact with police officers and what I found from my research was that a police officer will scan the back of your car for six seconds to figure out who you are. Do you have a National Rifle Association sticker on your car? Are you a teacher? Are you a doctor? Who are you? Why are you speeding? What kind of car you drive? They do all of these assumptions about you in six seconds. So I need to come up with something to communicate that I had a hearing disability in those six seconds.
And so when I came up with was a sticker that I still have to this day in the back of my car that says that driver in big, bold letters like like there. And that is the type of that that is really what started everything, because I started thinking, how can I make my life easier? So. Every time I have a challenge that is related to my hearing disability, I think how can I solve this problem? And going now into Google, one of the biggest challenges, one of the greatest fears that I have in life is dying in a fire, in a fire period, because when I go to sleep, I have to take off both of my hearings.
So I hear nothing, which is why I'm such a deep sleeper and especially living in Manhattan. We live next to a police station. There's a police station, a hospital and a fire station all within a few miles from us. So our street is always crazy. And so for me, I sleep like a baby at my partner. I can say the same. And while that is useful in some situations, if there is a fire and there's a fire in the building and people are not going, I'm not going to I'm going to sleep through it.
That is my greatest fear. So I had been thinking about two years ago, why don't I create something that when somebody closes the doorbell? Because that's usually you have to think of the basics. I need to create something and people press the doorbell, because that's a big step one. The light like in the house. And so I looked up all of the technologies for creating smart technologies, and they were so expensive, but I had a friend.
His name is Raymond. He works at Google and I I have talked to him about these ideas and remain a true ally. He had resources and other people that he said to me, Mariella put together a proposal for the things you need and want to see if I can talk to someone and Google to maybe get this sponsor, because it's always like it's always people in power and privilege that hold these keys to capital and to make sure that they are able to kind of take that key and share it with others.
So Raymond did that and I wrote the proposal you share with a few people. And one of the people that saw my proposal, his name is Dr. Vint Cerf, that to serve is one of the founding fathers of the Internet. He actually created email as we know it. He is brilliant and incredibly generous. And he heard about my idea. His wife has a hearing disability just like me. So he had a lot of interest in this. And he goes ahead and he loved my proposal.
Love. My dad thought it was reasonable. I went ahead and paid for all the tools that I needed. And I created my first smart home technology, which was at this time a ring doorbell that connected to the Phillips shoe lightbulb. So that when you talk about the phylloxera light bulb made out and since then I've grown to love that product because the ring doorbell is really fancy. You don't want to be having a ring to live in your apartment in the Bronx.
So I downgraded to a Samsung button, which is like this one, and I painted the same color as my. So it doesn't stick out too much. And now when you press any one of the buttons in the house or when you connect it to the door outside, I see how everything just lit up. So that event became aware of my work. And then I started doing a lot of feedback's around technology, around awareness. And last year was a really important year because it was the 30th anniversary of the ADA.
And I wanted to create an event that really celebrated that history and especially that celebrated the ADA through the lens of hearing disability like deaf president now and like all these things that we talked about today. And so we hosted that conference last year. It was seven days we got sponsored by Google for a captioning, which is very expensive. Google pays for that. And then this year, I'm trying to do it again, go back, go Boulder as part of the team.
But we are trying to really bring the disability conversation to technology. So we're trying to get companies like Amazon to really make a commitment for accessibility. Companies like Microsoft, Google. I'm trying to get them to be a part of this again, but just really have a space that really caters to the hearing disability experience really celebrates everything that we've done and just really highlights the power of technology for accessibility, because accessibility doesn't just help people with disabilities. There is something known as the curve effect.
So I don't know how much more time we have. I don't think you want me to do that.
Let's keep as much time as let's at least try for another five to ten minutes. Fifteen minutes and see.
Sounds good. So there's something known as the clear cut effect. The cut effect is the result of, if I remember correctly, during the Second World War, you had a lot of veterans that were coming back from the war, but they had a lot of mobility issues, like lots of people. And there was one specific veteran. I cannot remember where it was somewhere in the Midwest. And he was complaining he was bothered about the fact that because of the carbs, because carbs cut that thing, that allows users to kind of go into those who are not available.
They did not exist. And so a lot of veterans now get from point A to point B because that little stoop prevented them from having mobility access. So there was this one veteran and he wanted to change this and he was able to. And the politicians and his local area to create clear cut in his block so that he can move around in one block and change everything, because it all starts with one person making one little difference. And so he was able to create clear cut in his block and mental block and send that into another block, which extended into another block, which then extended into federal legislation to mandate that whenever we create a block, it creates accessibility.
But what we've known is that those curb cuts not only help people with mobility impairments or mobility challenge, it also helps a woman with a stroller. It helps the elderly. It helps people who have worked carrying around back. It helps pretty much everyone. And that is what's known as the side effect when you could be accessible to sign up, creating good design. Therefore, a good design and accessible design and accessible design is good design. And so when we get these companies and organizations to prioritize accessibility in everything, everything they do and we advocate when we unify behind a common theme, we're able to really change history.
For example, I don't know if you know this, but after so much attention from the deaf and hard of hearing, community should now be rolling out free auto captioning for its free accounts. That's actually a feature that was only available to the paid account and that costs about two hundred dollars. I think a month or a year, two hundred dollars just to have accessible captioning, so now that we are able to have captioning and that's not only helping me as a person with a disability, it's also helping.
My mom was an English as a second language speaker is helping people with language processing difficulties, is helping someone who's in a meeting who with background noise. So accessibility helps everyone. And that is what the effect is.
Really interesting. So. With with project hearing, then, right, what you're I guess what you're trying to do is. Keep. That that curb cut effect going build some momentum on it so that there can be more accessibility for people with hearing, hearing disabilities. So what's the next what's the next step for you there? Like, what's the besides getting the big steps of getting these other technology companies involved? Like, what does this what does this conference going to look like in what's the date of the conference?
Twenty six.
Twenty seconds. So what's the agenda for this conference look like that's different from last year.
Aside from Amy for last, more big fish this year. I want this to be our friends where we really. Really incorporate the full spectrum of technology company. I'm really trying to get more people to talk about accessibility and the stuff of Apple. Last year I really partnered with Google because, one, we only had about one month to plan for this conference. I had no idea how we did it, but I had a team of three people that volunteer their time who are absolutely brilliant.
But this year we have an entire team of about 10, 11 people who want to be a part of it. We have people like you who are well connected, who are able to really help. Help me understand the big boulder, so that's one of the things I hope to make a little bit to slowly make it back bigger and better. We have four hundred forty five last year, this year and eighty five thousand people, and it's a lot more sponsorship.
I think it's also amazing that when we were all introducing ourselves for the first time a week ago at the advisory, the first advisory board meeting, and people were talking about why they were there and how they found you, there were so many people who were following you on your Instagram account that just struck me that was so powerful because it was like, wow. So we have just people that like following you on Instagram. They're their fans. And they decided to make this commitment to come help you.
Build this project hearing in this event into something even bigger. I mean, that did that take you by surprise to that? How did you how did you feel or were you expecting that?
If they're not taken by surprise, because I'm a firm believer that if you do the work. One of the things my mom says is complex, complex, set of values, that which means translated in English, do what you're supposed to do so that you can demand the things you want. I am very happy because for this last year, I've been really investing so much into these last three years. I've working full time. I worked full time for the City University of New York as a project manager under Akhmad, one of the last clients mine by the Obama administration.
And that was a lot of work that was intense. But I really made a commitment about a year and a half ago that I'm going to give 100 percent and I'm talking about from six to two in the morning every day on the weekends and talking to people, putting materials together. And so everything that you're seeing now is really the manifestation of all of that, which makes me so happy that I am able to get people to think about accessibility, getting people to think about it, and getting people to think about technology and just kind of like driving that message of a every day.
And it is so awesome that it's finally looking for people that this is important.
That makes sense, then that's that's a that's a beautiful thing you put in the work, you put in the time and you're getting the. The benefits out of it that you deserve. So that's that's fantastic.
Yeah, but I will tell you, I am looking for a job. I think private hearing is really a passion project with passion sometimes takes years and years to become profit generating. So I am looking for a job. And what I hope to do is just really have to be something that continues to grow, having a staff that helps me help as well. But at the same time, it's really hard because you have all of these competing priorities. I'm also thinking about getting married, having kids, settling down, relax.
You know, I feel like I'm not ready for that. But I'm also thinking I want to be able to to get to that next phase in my life and whether it is through private hearing for doing the work that I'm doing within an established organization, we have to.
OK, so how can people find you reach out to help you contribute sponsor, so if you are interested in finding me, connect to me and my contacts, the first thing you want to do is just find me on social media. I am an Instagram and Twitter Facebook page. Clubhouse has the hottest thing is the clubhouse, but I am almost back. So if you are interested in sponsoring privateering, you can either sponsor by giving your time, becoming a volunteer or you can give some Dinara.
Because I love Dinara is necessary in my case to be in the background. So sponsoring us by actually giving us funding would be incredibly helpful. You can also email me at so if you want to talk more. There's also lots of workshops that are going to be happening in the next two weeks that you can sponsor, you can donate. So there are lots of ways to get involved and there's also my website and that will be getting revamped in the next few weeks the best.
Also, another great resource at.
Fantastic. And my last question and is what did I miss anything that you feel it's important to talk about that you didn't get to say or that you'd like to highlight?
It took me a really long time. To. Made peace with my disability. It took me a really long time to use the word disabled to describe myself, and the reason I am creating hearing is really because. I want to be the example that I wish I had had when I was growing up, I wish that there had been somebody else and she had a hearing disability and she was doing all of these things and. I want to be with someone.
The presentation I didn't have, I want to see a Latina this, see a Latina CEO feel I want to see. A version of myself, the stability that we that the money Yokine, I don't want to see all of these things that I am tempted to really be the representation I needed, because if I had seen a version of myself and I love this version of myself that I am now, I love that version of myself, I am becoming.
And if that version of myself when I was younger, some version of that, I feel like that would have made such a difference in how I acknowledge, deal with and how I would have proccess my disability. I probably would have started hearing much, much if I had had the type of representation. That I am for myself and I would like to add to that, I feel the same way, you know, but it's not it's not just in leadership, it's not just in in business and politics, but in media.
Right. Where are the characters in the Hollywood films? Where are the characters on Netflix that have disabilities on TV shows, movies that have disabilities that. Our. Either typecasts right in some way as the as just an inspirational figure or a sidekick, but that are actually powerful, that are actually contributing something meaningful to the story that we can look up to, that we could have looked up to as kids and that kids today can look up to and say, I want to be like that person.
One hundred percent. And that's actually a thankless fellow, because I feel like so much of this conversation is easy for us to talk about all of the things that are easy for us to talk about, all the things that happen. But the real challenge is what are you doing about it like that? That is what drives all of my work, is easy to complain, is easy to demand, easy. But doing the work. Waking up every day, putting on a team of people together, finding sponsorship, putting petition.
We creating a website that those things take time. Those things make it so easy to complain about things. It takes work to do the work. And I generally actually if there was one thing I said I can say is really don't just complain about it. What is your solution? What are you doing about the problem? And I really wish that more people took that approach. What are you trying to solve the problem? Because when you really when you look at these problems like disability is like talking about poverty is a big problem, is a humongous problem.
But if you focus on just what it was to where you are with the resources that you have, if you focus on that, you are able to create change for me for that change comes in the form of I want to teach people how to be by teaching them how to catch that. That is my main mission. That is the focus of what I'm about. You became an ally just now. You now know that when you are meeting, you're going to make an action.
That is my goal. And everything I do is drive that point home that we all have a role to play in the future. So what is the problem that you see and what are you doing to solve it?
Absolutely. Don't stop at the problem just because it's big, just because it's overwhelming. Figure out your solution.
Adept at creating a solution. How do you eat an elephant? I would never read an elephant, but how do you get another one bite at it? So that is that is something I stand firmly behind on doing something about solve the problem.
OK, that's that's beautiful and I we're going to end it there and thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for the time.
It's you and me.
Helpful links:
Project Hearing: www.projecthearing.com/
Connect with Mariella Paulino on Social Media:
Connect with Mariella Paulino on Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProjectHearing
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProjectHearing
