Professional Speaking

 

My interest in public speaking began in college where I majored in communications and then hosted a top-rated drive-time show on a local San Francisco Bay Area radio station. I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to share my experiences over the last ten years speaking at venues ranging everywhere from Retro Gamer Conferences, to leading travel industry gatherings and even summer camps for the blind and visually impaired.

Changing how the fully sighted see the visually impaired

In 1999, at the height of my career in the videogames industry, a car accident robbed me of my sight, leaving me with 5% low functioning vision in one eye and none in the other. With almost no vision left, I spent years learning to navigate the world again and turned to photography not only as a tool to see the events around me, but as an outlet to share how I see the world. I hold degrees in Fine Art Photography, Studio Art Photography, Art, and Communications. Today, as a Disability Advocate, I travel the world with my guide dog Fauna speaking about Photography, Art, Videogames and being a Disabled Travel Influencer.

Ted Tahquechi

Speaking at Heather’s Camp

Henry Glover

Brand Expert

Nicholas Simpson

Designer

Travel Influencer and Disability Advocate

I am the owner and primary content creator for www.blindtravels.com an online resource dedicated to delivering destination and travel related technology reviews for blind and visually impaired travelers. I draw from more than 25 years of business and leisure travel in my articles, and often speak at travel industry conferences about strategies to more effectively market leisure travel products, destinations and tours to the visually impaired. More than 250 million people in the world have visual impairments ranging from blindness to severe vision loss and I love to work with members of the travel industry to help them understand effective approaches to marketing services and products to this challenging demographic. I also commonly aid travel industry destinations to improve their property accessibility for visually impaired guests.

Photography

In 2016, I debuted a six-year-long body positive photographic project called Landscapes of the Body http://www.bodyscapes.photography/, an inclusive and abstract view of the human form which has been shown all over the world. I love to speak about Landscape, Portrait and Product photography, and occasionally even teach my method for creating bodyscapes. My goal when exhibiting my photography is to change the way visual artwork is experienced. When my work is shown I create an audio description for each traditional print displayed, which is accessed by scanning a QR code on any smartphone. I also provide prints which are tactile, allowing those who are visually impaired to experience the artwork.  This approach allows those who are blind or vision impaired to experience visual art. 

Retro Gamers

I worked in the videogames industry at Atari, Accolade and Mattel Toys for nearly 20 years as a Senior Product Manager creating and releasing 35 titles to the market for PC, handhelds and consoles. Throughout my career, I also created sound effects and music for many of the titles I produced, becoming adept at Foley work and voice over production. I am often called on to speak at Retro Gamer conferences about my time in the industry, and attendees often revel in my frank question and answer sessions.

Game credits:

  • Voice Talent for Tempest 2000 (my wife was the female voice)
  • Music voice and SFX for many Atari games
  • Created the Test Drive: Offroad franchise
  • Created Redline Gang Warfare
  • Created Slot Car Racing, Jets and more for Mattel Toys. 

and much more. 

 

 

I am located near Denver, Colorado, and I speak at events large and small, in person or via zoom. Contact me about your event directly at nedskee@tahquechi.com