Draft:Jonathan Mosen

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Jonathan Mosen

Jonathan William Mosen MNZM (born 1969) is a New Zealand broadcaster, disability advocate, assistive technology executive, and Internet radio pioneer. Blind from birth due to Norrie disease, he became known to radio audiences in Auckland from early childhood and later built an international career spanning broadcasting, disability law reform, and accessible technology.

In the assistive technology industry, Mosen held senior product management roles at HumanWare and Freedom Scientific, where he oversaw major product lines used by blind people globally and created FSCast, Freedom Scientific’s widely followed podcast. He founded ACB Radio in 1999 on behalf of the American Council of the Blind, one of the first Internet radio services for the blindness community, and later established Mushroom FM, a licensed Internet radio station with listeners in 115 countries.

As an advocate, Mosen led campaigns that resulted in changes to New Zealand’s Copyright Act establishing blind people’s right to accessible formats — a reform that informed the international Marrakesh Treaty — and successfully sought reform of New Zealand’s Juries Act to allow blind people to serve on juries. He served as Chief Executive of Workbridge, New Zealand’s largest employment agency for disabled people, from 2019 to 2024. In 2019, the New Zealand Government appointed him a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to the blind community. In late 2024 he relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, to serve as Executive Director for Accessibility Excellence at the National Federation of the Blind, where he leads the organisation’s Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility.

Early life and family

Jonathan William Mosen was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1969, the youngest of five children. His family background was rural; his father worked on the railways and in farming before eventually managing his own poultry farm. His mother was 16 when she married, and 17 at the birth of Mosen’s older brother Colin, who is also blind. Mosen, his brother Colin, and his nephew all have a condition called Norrie disease, an X-linked genetic disorder that causes blindness from birth and frequently results in progressive hearing loss. Mosen has spoken publicly about living with both blindness and hearing impairment, and about the significance of having blind adult role models early in his family’s life through the support of blind social workers employed by the blindness organisation of the day.

Mosen has described his childhood as outgoing and adventurous. His parents encouraged him to live as independently as possible, a philosophy they had developed partly through their earlier experience raising Colin. He became aware of his own blindness at around age three or four when he began kindergarten and noticed he was treated differently from other children, but has said he viewed it more as a distinction than a disability.

Education

Mosen attended the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind’s school for the blind in Auckland for approximately seven years. His family moved to a house directly opposite the school so that he could attend as a day pupil rather than a boarder, an arrangement made in response to his brother’s earlier unhappiness with full-time residential schooling. He has credited the concentrated specialist environment with giving him early access to Braille instruction and to the first generation of accessible computing technology, including the Optacon. He later transitioned into mainstream high school, where a resource room and specialist teachers of the visually impaired supported his continued education.

Mosen earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Studies from the University of Auckland, during which time he began his commercial broadcasting career. He subsequently completed a Master of Public Policy degree at Victoria University of Wellington, funded by the Foundation for the Blind, which proved foundational to his later work in government relations and disability law reform.

Mosen has spoken publicly about experiencing physical and sexual abuse at the school for the blind during his childhood. In 2022, he gave public testimony about this abuse to New Zealand’s Royal Commission on Abuse in Care (see § Royal Commission on Abuse in Care).

Radio career

Early radio appearances

Mosen’s involvement in broadcasting began before the age of five. At approximately four years old, having learned to dial a rotary telephone, he called into a talkback radio programme hosted by Geoff Sinclair on what was then Radio Pacific. The producer put the young Mosen on air, and his engaging manner meant his calls became a regular fixture. The station eventually invited him to co-host a children’s Christmas phone-in programme. His appearances in this format continued annually until his mid-teens, and became popular enough that the station ran a fundraising drive to purchase a Baldwin Fun Machine electronic keyboard for him, ultimately raising enough to buy one for Mosen to keep and a second to donate to the school for the blind.

By his early teens, Mosen was also operating the studio mixing panel during his appearances, managing telephone lines and audio faders. Recordings survive of some of these broadcasts, including a segment made when he was approximately eight years old.

Starting his own station

While still in high school and determined to develop a professional radio career, Mosen established his own short-range FM radio station, broadcasting to a local area of South Auckland. In 1987 he organised Radio Enterprise, a temporary licensed station, as a practical broadcasting venture and a way to demonstrate that blind people could work professionally in radio. Using provisions permitting low-power FM transmission within certain technical limits, the project allowed him to build hands-on skills while seeking professional opportunities.

Professional broadcasting

While completing his university degree, Mosen began his commercial broadcasting career at Counties Radio, which served the Counties/Manukau area. He went on to host a breakfast current affairs show on Auckland 1476, where he interviewed politicians and prominent newsmakers of the day. He also worked at Today FM, South City Radio, and Q96 FM, where he served as Programme Director. He contributed regularly to Radio New Zealand’s Sunday Supplement as a commentator on disability and political issues, a role that gave him a national platform.

Advocacy and public life

Foundation for the Blind and Blind Citizens NZ

In 1994, Mosen was appointed Manager, Government Relations at the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (now known as Blind Low Vision NZ). In this role he managed the organisation’s interface with government and led several significant legislative campaigns. He also served as President of the Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand (Blind Citizens NZ), the consumer-led membership organisation for blind New Zealanders. He is notable for having held leadership positions in both the statutory agency and the consumer movement, though not simultaneously. Mosen later chaired the Foundation’s Board of Directors. He has described the decade-long campaign to reform the governance of the Foundation — ensuring that blind New Zealanders gained ultimate control over its board — as among the most significant achievements of his advocacy career.

One of Mosen’s major legislative achievements was leading a successful campaign to amend New Zealand’s Copyright Act to establish in law the principle that blind people have the right to access written material in accessible formats without copyright restriction. This reform preceded and helped inform the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled, an international agreement adopted in 2013 under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization. He also successfully sought reform of New Zealand’s Juries Act 1981 to clarify that blind people should not face a blanket ban on jury service.

Parliamentary candidacies

Mosen has stood for election to the New Zealand Parliament on two occasions, both times unsuccessfully. In 1999 he was a candidate for New Zealand First.

Royal Commission on Abuse in Care

In 2022, Mosen gave public testimony to New Zealand’s Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care regarding the abuse he experienced as a child at the school for the blind. He told media that the Government’s formal acknowledgement of the abuse suffered by disabled people in state institutions was a meaningful first step, while emphasising that survivors were waiting for concrete detail on apology and redress. Following this testimony, the New Zealand Government appointed him to the board of the Survivor Experiences Service, an entity established to assist survivors of abuse in care.

In 2023, Mosen was elected Chairman of the New Zealand Disability Support Network, a body representing more than 200 providers of disability-related services in New Zealand. He held this role until shortly before his departure from New Zealand in late 2024.

Internet radio

ACB Radio

In 1999, while serving as President of Blind Citizens NZ and having recently left his position at the Foundation for the Blind, Mosen was approached by the American Council of the Blind (ACB) to establish an Internet radio service for the blindness community. He had already been experimenting with Shoutcast streaming technology to broadcast his personal Internet station, MBS FM (Mosen Broadcasting System), and had launched a talk-show format called Blind Line, described as the first global call-in show for the blindness community, which attracted an international audience of listeners who called in via telephone.

ACB Radio launched in December 1999, with Mosen as its founding director, operating from New Zealand. The service grew rapidly: by the time of Mosen’s departure in 2003, it had expanded to four concurrent broadcast streams, a volunteer staff of more than 70 people working across nine countries, and listeners in more than 70 countries. The station is regarded as a pioneering model for community Internet radio targeting a specific shared-interest audience.

In 2003, Mosen also established a temporary, independent Internet radio project called Broadcast for Peace to protest the commencement of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The 30-plus-hour broadcast drew participants from multiple countries and covered the conflict from an anti-war perspective.

Mushroom FM and other ventures

In 2010, Mosen founded Mushroom FM, a licensed Internet radio station. The station grew to encompass more than 40 staff and attracted listeners in 115 countries, becoming known for its high production values and use of social media. At the time of its closure in late 2024, it had become a commercially successful operation.

In April 2022, Mosen produced We’re with U, an 11.5-hour benefit concert featuring blind musicians from around the world performing for blind Ukrainians affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The concert was broadcast on more than 20 Internet radio stations and raised more than USD $100,000.

Assistive technology career

HumanWare

In 2003, Mosen entered the assistive technology industry full-time when he became Blindness Products Manager at Pulse Data International, a New Zealand-based company later renamed HumanWare. In this role, Mosen led the redesign and launch of the BrailleNote mPower, a major update to the BrailleNote line of Braille personal digital assistants used by blind students and professionals globally. He also facilitated partnerships with other companies in the blindness technology sector, including Baum and Code Factory, to expand the product range.

Freedom Scientific

In 2006, Mosen joined Florida-based Freedom Scientific as Vice President of Blindness Hardware Product Management. Freedom Scientific was at the time the world’s largest producer of blindness technology and the developer of JAWS for Windows, the most widely used screen reader for Windows computers. He was responsible for hardware products including the PAC Mate Accessible Pocket PC and the Focus line of Braille displays.

Mosen also devised and hosted FSCast, Freedom Scientific’s official monthly podcast, which featured product demonstrations, interviews, and technology news. FSCast became a widely listened-to resource in the blindness technology community. In 2013, he moved from the Vice President role to become Director of Blindness Communications, continuing to host FSCast and managing the company’s blog and social media, remaining in that capacity until 2018.

His move from HumanWare to Freedom Scientific attracted significant attention within the blindness community, as the two companies produced competing Braille PDA products. The American Foundation for the Blind’s journal AccessWorld published an extended feature on the community response to his appointment.

Mosen Consulting

In 2013, Mosen founded Mosen Consulting alongside his wife Bonnie. The consultancy provided assistive technology training, produced eBooks and audiobooks including the iOS Without the Eye series covering iPhone use by blind people, and offered accessibility consulting services to organisations wishing to make their websites and applications accessible. He continued to host FSCast and manage Freedom Scientific’s social media and blog during this period.

Aira

In October 2018, Mosen became Vice President, Australasia and Explorer Communications at Aira, a service using human visual interpreters and artificial intelligence to assist blind people in navigating their environment. During his six months in the role he oversaw the full rollout of Aira’s service in Australia and New Zealand, produced audio training material, and established the company’s podcast. He left the role in 2019 to become Chief Executive of Workbridge.

Workbridge

From 2019 to 2024, Mosen served as Chief Executive of Workbridge, New Zealand’s largest employment agency for disabled people, with 22 offices and approximately 120 staff across the country. During his tenure he oversaw a structural transformation of the organisation toward a social enterprise model and secured the renewal of Workbridge’s government contract. On his resignation in June 2024, the Board Chair described his leadership as having had a strong positive impact on the disability sector and on the lives of disabled people.

On his departure from New Zealand, Mosen stated publicly that he regarded New Zealand as among the worst countries in the western world in which to be blind, citing the absence of disabled Members of Parliament, the lack of disabled leadership within many disability agencies, and what he described as chronic underfunding of the disability sector.

National Federation of the Blind

In September 2024, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) of the United States announced that Mosen would join the organisation to work on technology-related projects. By the end of 2024, he and his wife Bonnie had relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, where the NFB is headquartered, for him to take up the role of Executive Director for Accessibility Excellence.

In this role, Mosen leads the NFB’s Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility (CENA), a concentrated centre of expertise and resources established by the NFB in 2014 that works with businesses, government, and educational institutions to advance nonvisual accessibility. CENA’s work includes training, beta testing, accessibility advocacy to major technology providers, and oversight of the International Braille and Technology Center, which houses the world’s largest collection of technology used by blind people. NFB President Mark Riccobono described the appointment in his 2025 Presidential Report to the NFB’s national convention, noting that the Federation had hired its first Executive Director for Accessibility Excellence as part of a restructuring of its technology-related priorities. Mosen presented to the 2025 national convention on the activities of CENA and its future development, including a planned redesign of the International Braille and Technology Center. He also hosts Access On, the NFB’s technology podcast.

Podcasting

In addition to hosting FSCast for Freedom Scientific and Access On for the NFB, Mosen produced and hosted Mosen At Large (renamed Living Blindfully in 2023), an independently produced podcast covering technology, social and political issues affecting the blindness community, and current affairs. At the time of its closure in late 2024, the programme had listeners in 113 countries and had become a commercially sustainable operation. In 2024, Living Blindfully received the NFB’s Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award at the organisation’s national convention in Orlando, Florida.

Personal life

Mosen was married to his first wife, Amanda, from approximately 1990. The couple met in 1987 when Amanda was acting as an amanuensis — a sighted person assisting a blind student — during a music theory examination. They were together for approximately 18 years and have four children: Heidi, Richard, David, and Nicola. Mosen has spoken openly about a serious episode of depression he experienced in his late teens and early twenties, crediting his discovery of the online organised blind community through the CompuServe Information Service in 1986 with helping him through that period.

He is married to his second wife, Bonnie, who is also blind. Bonnie Mosen co-founded Mosen Consulting with Jonathan and has been a collaborator in his broadcasting and podcasting ventures. The couple relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, in late 2024. Mosen is a grandfather.

Mosen has spoken publicly about his atheism, describing his non-belief as central to his sense of personal responsibility and self-reliance. He has also discussed his Norrie disease-related progressive hearing impairment extensively in public forums, and has been an advocate for greater accessibility of hearing aid technology for blind users, including better screen reader compatibility with hearing aid companion applications.

Honours and awards

  • Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM), 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours, for services to the blind community of New Zealand.
  • Vernon Henley Media Award, American Council of the Blind, 2001, for positive representation of blind people through the media.
  • Beamish Memorial Medal, Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand, 2003, the organisation’s most prestigious award, for services to the blind of New Zealand.
  • Impact Award, New Zealand Attitude Awards, 2020.
  • Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award, National Federation of the Blind, 2024, awarded to Living Blindfully podcast.
  • Robert S. Bray Award, American Council of the Blind, 2024.

See also

References

Each source below should be converted to a Wikipedia inline <ref> footnote placed at the point of the corresponding claim before submission. Independent sources are preferred; self-published sources (marked) may be used for uncontroversial biographical facts only, per WP:BLPSELFPUB.

Independent sources:

Self-published sources (WP:BLPSELFPUB — uncontroversial biographical facts only):

  • Mosen, Jonathan. “About me.” Mosen At Large. https://mosen.org/bio/ [source for BA in History and Political Studies, Counties Radio, Auckland 1476, Today FM, South City Radio, Q96 FM as Programme Director, 1994 government relations appointment, CompuServe/depression detail, grandparent status]
  • Mosen, Jonathan, with Glen Gordon. In the Arena, the Jonathan Mosen Story. Nine-part audio biography, 2019. https://mosen.org/inthearena/
  • Living Blindfully transcript, Robert S. Bray Award presentation, 2024. https://www.livingblindfully.com/lb0291transcript/ [self-published; independent corroboration sought but not yet found]

Wikipedia editorial notes — remove before submission

What is new in version 4 and why:

CENA added throughout. The lead paragraph now states that Mosen leads CENA. The National Federation of the Blind section was substantially expanded to describe CENA’s founding (2014), scope, and Mosen’s specific role within it. The sourcing is now robust: the NFB’s own CENA programme page, the 2025 Riccobono Presidential Report, the Braille Monitor 2025 convention report, and the NFB’s own press release on Mosen’s appointment all independently confirm both his role and the CENA connection. Three CENA-specific NFB sources were added to the references section.

Undergraduate degree now specified as Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Studies, University of Auckland, sourced to the official mosen.org biography (WP:BLPSELFPUB).

Professional Broadcasting section substantially expanded with specific stations: Counties Radio, Auckland 1476, Today FM, South City Radio, and Q96 FM (Programme Director), all sourced to the official biography. The 1994 appointment date for the government relations role was added from the same source.

Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award upgraded from weakly sourced to strongly sourced: the NFB press release on Mosen’s appointment states directly that the NFB recognised Living Blindfully with the award. This is now a primary independent NFB source rather than a self-published transcript. The award has been moved from Honours into the Podcasting section where it fits contextually, and also remains in the Honours list.

Personal life section expanded with two small additions: the CompuServe/depression detail (sourced independently to the NFB press release, which states Mosen “discovered the organized blind movement through access to the CompuServe Information Service in 1986” and that “this discovery… [helped] him combat significant depression and probably saving his life”); and the granddaughter detail (sourced to mosen.org biography, WP:BLPSELFPUB).

Source gaps still to fill before submission:

  • Substantial independent profiles in mainstream New Zealand or international news media on the early radio career.
  • Independent confirmation of the second parliamentary candidacy (year and party): article currently says “two occasions” based on the audio biography series; the second has not been independently sourced.
  • Independent corroboration of the Robert S. Bray Award: currently sourced only to a self-published transcript.
  • The Braille Monitor is the NFB’s own publication so is not fully independent, but is a reliable published source for factual convention proceedings.

Notability: Unchanged from v3. Mosen clearly meets WP:GNG across multiple decades, publication types, and jurisdictions.

BLP compliance: Unchanged from v3. All sensitive claims remain sourced to independent published reports.

Remaining steps before submission: 1. Convert all references to Wikipedia <ref> inline footnote format. 2. Add

Quick facts Jonathan Mosen ...
Jonathan Mosen
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with birth year, nationality, occupation, and known-for fields; MNZM in the post-nominals parameter. 3. Add categories: People with Norrie disease; New Zealand broadcasters; New Zealand disability rights activists; Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit; People from Auckland; Internet radio pioneers; Assistive technology people; Blind people from New Zealand; New Zealand podcasters; New Zealand First candidates. 4. Confirm second parliamentary candidacy details with an independent source. 5. Seek independent corroboration of the Robert S. Bray Award. 6. Submit via Wikipedia:Articles for Creation (WP:AFC). 7. Declare conflict of interest on the talk page.

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