We came across this great article by blogger Maya-Liam who has Retinopathy of Prematurity. She talks about her experiences of using technology and being online and how other people who are registered blind can benefit from being online:
“Hi everyone, my name is Maya-Liam and I have Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). This means I was born early so my eyes didn’t develop properly. I’m registered blind, have no sight in my left eye and a tiny tunnel of vision in the right eye.
I think I’m a bit of a technology whizz, I use my Mac and iPad to produce music, take photos with added image descriptions, and I go online…a lot.
Lots of people think that blind and partially sighted people can’t get online at all – which isn’t true! Even when technology wasn’t what it is now in terms of accessibility, I was still using it. I struggled a lot more with it when I was younger, although with the development of accessibility settings on devices including laptops, tablets and smartphones, I can get online whenever I want.
The best thing about getting online as someone who is registered blind is being able to talk to my friends – I never feel like I’m on my own. Going online is also a fun way to interact with my blind and partially sighted friends, we mainly use Facebook to keep in touch with each other.
Being online definitely stops me from being socially isolated and my friends even encourage me to do my travel training, use my cane and tell me routes to places over Facebook (my friends all cheer when I bring my cane to the pub!).This means I can go and meet them when I might not be able to otherwise.
My top tip for anyone who is blind or partially sighted, make sure you know exactly which accessibility features might work for you. Get some help setting your hardware up and you’re ready to get online!”
Here at Sight and Sound Technology we have a dedicated technical support team, alongside our specialised sales team we have all the elements necessary if you want to try a whole manner of technology and software designed specifically for people who are blind or visually impaired.
Please just give us a call on 01604 798070 or drop an email to [email protected]