Re: looking for ideas to help me with my independence
I live in the US, because all our paper money is the same size, we have to use folding the bills a specific way for each bill denomination. I've heard that in a couple of years, they will start embossing the bills with brail like dots for the blind. That might work for new bills, but I've found some bills that have been circulating for a while that were so soft I doubt they'd hold the dots, so some other form of bill identification will probably always be needed.
Folding works quite well, but you need to know what the bill is before you can fold it. I used LookTel's Money Identifier on my iPhone until the . Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the part of our government responsible for our paper money, release a device called I-bill. It's a small device that I keep on my keychain that identifies our paper money. It's free to any one who is registered as legally blind.
One of the things I find I need most often is to be able to identify produc ts in the kitchen, especially if they are in similar packages. I first started using an app called Red Laser, but it doesn't work under iOS 9 and the developer hasn't updated it in a long time. So then I tried to use Digit Eyes but found its bar code scanner too slow to be practicle for blind users who may not know where the bar code is. My temporary solution was to use Red Laser to find the bar code, then switch to Digit Eyes to identify the product. But having to switch back and forth between the two apps got annoying. So I gave up on using a smart phone app to scan bar codes to identify products and now use an ID Mate Quest from EnVision America, its pricey at $1300 but so far has proven so useful that I use it every day so I consider it worth the cost.
For reading paper mail, I started off using an OCR program with a word processor but was very unhappy with the results. So I tried Freedom Scientific's Open Book. It produced excellent results and was far easi er to use than the word processor & OCR program combination was, so that is what I use now.
For transportation, it depends. For trips longer than five miles I use the handicapped transportation service provide by city bus service. The fare is a flat $4 each way regardless of the distance, but there are restrictions. The first is that your home and your destination have to be within three quarters of a mile from any of the city bus routes and they only operate when the buses do, and the buses here run from 6AM to 10PM. You also have to call them 24 hours in advance to request your trip so you need to know when you'll be returning. So I find that service not as useful as I would have liked.
Most of my trips are short, under five miles, so I just use taxis.
I've heard of services like Uber and Lift. My problem with them is, unlike taxis which are regulated and the drivers are specifically licensed to be taxi drivers,services like Uber and Lift are unregu lated and the only requirement needed to be a driver is a valid driver's license and a vehicle. With that in mind you may as well stand by a road and stick your thumb out. No thank you.
_______________________________________________ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
