Comments on: SeroTalk Podcast 220: Kids Scare Me

By: Timothy Hornik

Timothy Hornik — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 13:52:28 +0000

Greetings Serotalk Podcast,

Like many followers, it shocked me to learn of all the departures from the network. It is thanks to voices like Ricky, Joe, and Buddy that captivated my interest in assistive technology as more than a hobby, but as something that we need to advocate and help evolve. I will miss all of those who left, and hope they can continue providing the disability community with their commentary and views on this ever changing world of technology.

Along that line, Apple updated the webpages for the Watch. While nothing specifically casts any light on Voice Over styled accessibility, the numerous other features for health and fitness, “Hey Siri,” haptic feedback, and several other items still make this a very intriguing prospect for the visually impaired community. Thus far, the iHealthLabs.com tracker, Fitbit, Niki Fuel, Gear, Microsoft, and other similarly styled wearable devices with health and fitness related features lack any form of accessibility for those with a print disability. Thus far the closest thing we have to a wearable where by we might be able to understand this data comes from other the iPhone 5S, 6, and 6 Plus through the HealthKit. Second to this is Fitbit synced through Sync Solver, as that app appears accessible in my test of it. There are some videos on the new Apple Watch pages, and suggest folks take a gander over there. Here is a link to the Technology page as it provides a nice overview on what we can expect:

http://www.apple.com/watch/technology/

Finally, thank you for warm words during the last podcast. You all have inspired and enlightened me with the news and links you provided about technology. Without individuals like Ricky, Joe, Buddy, and those who will remain on Serotalk, there would be a rather large fog of war covering the technology landscape for hobbyist AT enthusiasts like myself.

Thank you for your assistance,
Tim

By: Casey Weeks

Casey Weeks — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 17:16:29 +0000

Yall caught my intrest when yall brought up the subject about how blind and low vission reacts in the public. I even went and read the article yall linked to. I had had enough people try to help to see where reactions by the blind can prove to be a bad thing, but… I’m currently having someone teaching me some self defence things. I can see where someone who doesn’t know when a touch is just a touch or something more. If someone sees it as haarm when it is not, I can see where a bunch of bad things come from it. After all, why would you want to help if you see blind people as peple who nock your head off? Weight a min, isn’t this point of view talked about already? So, to me, there is a time to speak up and a time to let it pass. The question is when? There is clearly a time to act and a time to not… I have been known to politely turn down help before. I have been grabbed by my backpack before to be staired around a curv that I knew was there. I was not happy about that, but neither was I mad enough to to cause major halm, not that would had knewn how… when that happen, I stopped and refused to be moved. They finally left me allone. What if I was from a familly didn’t treet me right. Might I had turned around and did something even worse? Now for braille, oh great, another braille table to learn. Why don’t we just stick with eight dot computer braille? LOL. To me, all I feel I need is american grade two braille and computer braille. Now I need to learn UEB? I guess that grade two is so set in me, that switching will be a pain. How many years will we have american grade two and UEB together? Will a lot of people just not care do to the fact they can’t read braille? Also, it seems like to me, the price of braille displays are just to igh for the time being. that may be changing, but when will more people start using one. I’m betting not until prices get low enough for one to be bought. Add to that, people may not care by the time braille is cheep enough for most to get one.

By: Beth

Beth — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 17:46:21 +0000

Hi, this is in response to Serotalk Podcast 220, concerning the issue of being an ambassador for the blind. I agree that I represent only me and I am not an ambassador for any other person or group. However, I am responsible to be the best me I can be. I am not entitled to react negatively if bad stuff happens to me. Okay, be aggravated, even angry. Yes, feel that. Deal with it in a positive fashion. I used to be a snapping turtle in all spheres of life, which I now regret, but I have learned from it. I finally stopped doing that years ago. It only made me madder and other people were injured by it. On a regular basis, I have instances of sighted helpers telling me in no uncertain terms what decisions I should make. If it deals with, say, where I should put something in my fridge, I let the sighted person place the item and I put it where I want it when the sighted person leaves. If it deals with an important issue, no matter how aggravated I get, I lowr my voice volume and calmly and emphatically state my decision. This derails the sighted person’s objections. A soft answer turns anger away. When this is accomplished, either the situation just sinks to the background short- or longterm or it can be dealt with calmly and practically, producing a cooperative outcome, even if the problem cannot be currently or potentially solved. People are always to be respected and people are never stupid. When ideas are wrong, attack the ideas, never the person. People are not utilitarian. Regarding the Jonathan Mosen article: No one should be grabbed on the street but, on reading the article, I realized that the grabber told the grabbee why the action was done, it wasn’t a wordless attack. I would have said: Ooh, you startled me, whoa, please don’t grab people! As to the prior experience idea: Psychology and psychiatry depend on people generalizing reactions; in other words, if you were attacked, if someone grabs you again, you supposedly ought to react as if an attack were imminent. Why? That was then and this is now. Take every circumstance for what it is: Different from the last one. It takes a split second to know if you’re being dragged down the street, in which case, scream your head off and fight. If someone ggrabs you and also voices a desire to help, that is a different scenario than an attack. Thanks to the Serotek team for bringing these issues to the forefront.