Category: Technology: Phone/Tablet/Computer

Sue’s Toolbox Update 2023

Sue wrote most of this, of course. My comments are in [ ]. When you see any text that is a different color or underlined (varies by the device you’re using), you can choose it and go to a page with more information. It’s called a link.

Hi! Lin asked me to update my “toolbox” page. It has been three years so it might not be a bad idea. [Sue & some others call me by my ‘childhood name’ Lin, but I’m also Linda ::grin::]

Lighting!

I stand by most of what I said in 2020. Good lighting is essential. ​I was told to get LED lights when I started this journey. I have Ott brand lights and they work well. They also last forever. [You can often find the Ott lights on sale at the JOANN store.] The bulb in the light next to the bed has been going strong for seven years. The LED lighting is cool to the touch and reduces glare. If you have vision issues, you know how much “fun” glare can be! Not! Reducing glare is a real plus in lighting.

Magnify, Magnify, Magnify!

When you have advanced, age-related macular degeneration there are a few, simple rules: magnify, magnify, magnify!

I remember walking home from elementary school to find my grandfather trying to read the newspaper with a handheld magnifying glass. Same thing with my father several decades later. However, these days, it is not your father’s magnification any longer!

My workhorse is my closed-circuit TV magnifier (CCTV; also called video magnifier). They are expensive, but for me, they are indispensable. I take notes, pay bills, sort out my taxes, everything on that machine.

My CCTV is a portable model from Low Vision International. It has a sliding tray and a camera I can flip to view presentations and people across the room. I got the model you can hook up to a computer, but I have not used that feature yet. [Where to find these devices and other low vision aids? Check my section at the end ‘Finding Help to Create YOUR Toolbox!’]

Computer

And speaking of computers, my iMac is also an essential tool in my toolbox. I learned on a Mac, so that is my platform of choice. While Macs are relatively expensive compared to other brands on the market, they also come with a magnification feature built in. [Great resource for learning about using a Mac from Perkins School for the Blind ‘Getting Started on the Mac for Users with Low Vision.’]

This is as opposed to PCs that need you to add a magnification app. My magnification app for a PC I use is ZoomText. ZoomText not only magnifies, it also gives you voice over. Voice over is a “drive-me-crazy” feature that reads what you have put the cursor on and what you are typing. Right now voice over is enough to drive me insane, but it may be very helpful in the future. Either way, ZoomText is not free but is affordable. [Her reference to ‘voice over’ is not the same as Apple’s VoiceOver feature.]

iPad

I am typing this on my iPad. I purchase the BIG iPad with a 12.9 inch screen and I love it. My iPad not only magnifies but holds a number of apps that help me with the little inconveniences of being visually impaired. When I need a professional reference book, I buy a hard copy but also request a pdf version. I am on record with several publishing houses and they are required by law to provide those to me. Disability does have some privileges. Once I download the pdf version into NaturalReader, my iPad reads to me and I follow along in the book. [Hadley has great ‘how to’ videos on using an iPad.]

I can also “read” books on my iPad. Since I am legally blind, I am qualified to use BARD. BARD is great! There are hundreds of thousands of audiobooks available for free. Love that word free. [BARD is just one resource available from the National Library Service program ‘That All May Read.’ For those who qualify, there’s also an easy-to-use audiobook player with cartridges you can get.]

I go in spurts and stops with my “reading” any more, but I watch TV on my iPad regularly. There are a number of broadcasting companies that offer free apps. While they regulate what you can access for free, they do let you access more if you have a cable company and register. I like watching Tv on my iPad because I can “magnify” the picture by shrinking the distance to the screen. Another thing you might be interested in is audio description. I watched ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ on PBS and the audio description was helpful and not intrusive.

Other Tools for Magnification

Two more things before I go: magnification and magnification. I have a handheld, electronic magnifier that is good for restaurant menus and the like and a pair of telescopic glasses. My telescopic glasses are MaxTV glasses. I have a friend now who likes to go to the movies. I wear my MaxTV glasses and the 3-D glasses at the same time. Avatar 2 was stunning. [Her MaxTV glasses are from Eschenbach, a company considered to be one of the best for such products. There are less expensive products you can find through sources such as Maxiaids or Independent Living Aids. I don’t recommend you try the least expensive, though. Read the reviews and definitely make sure that you can return them for free if they don’t work for you.]

So there you have Sue’s Toolbox, 2023 version. I will be the first to admit the price tags on those things can be a bit shocking. Just remember the three important points: magnification, magnification, magnification. The same results can be accomplished in other ways. Hope this helped!

Finding Help to Create YOUR Toolbox!

Low Vision Therapy

Linda: We recommend that since there are so many options for these and other low vision aids, some of which are expensive, it’s best to find a low vision therapist, low vision occupational therapist, or a vision rehabilitation program where specialists will listen to what you want and need to do but can’t and will help you find what works for you. There is no ‘one size fits all.’

We recommend that to find low vision therapy near you, start by going to the VisionAware site to ‘Directory of Services’ (bottom or side of the page depending on what device you’re using) where you’ll enter your zip code (US) or province (Canada). In the UK, there are 2 great groups who can help: The Macular Society and the RNIB. You want to look for non-profit organizations, universities, or government resources where they’re not profiting from the sales. You can of course ask your eye specialist for organizations/specialists near you.

Vocational Rehabilitation

In 2016 when Sue became legally blind from advanced dry AMD/geographic atrophy/GA, she contacted Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Blind and Vision Services/BBVS because she wanted to continue to work. You can read about that here: A Human Doing. They provided some of the low vision aids such as the magnifiers, telescopic glasses including MaxTV glasses, the CCTV, software ZoomText and NaturalReader, a basic iPad, and a white cane. They also provided her with some training on some of the devices. She also had what’s called Orientation & Mobility training to help her get around safely. She did pay a fee based on a sliding scale of income. Every state will be different.

You can find your state or province vocational rehabilitation resources through the link to VisionAware above. You can also ask your eye specialist about it.

More Resources

A good resource for products and technology is VisionAware which is a not-for-profit organization with the APH (American Printing House). Check out this section ‘Helpful Products and Technology for Living with Vision Loss.’

Magnifiers and telescopic glasses that she refers to are called ‘optical devices.’ Here’s a good article about them with examples ‘What Are Low Vision Optical Devices?’

New March 19th, 2023

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Hi! Happy Anniversary to us! It was February 2016 we started this crazy journey. For those of you who have been around since nearly the beginning, thank you for sticking around and putting up with us! For you who are newcomers, welcome! [Lin/Linda: To read Sue’s very first page, it’s In the Beginning.  At the bottom of the page, there’s a link to In the Beginning: Revisited where you can read about how her life has changed.]

I had a déjà vu experience at the beginning of the week. It was January 31, 2016, when I went skiing and came home to a drastic vision loss. It was January 29, 2019, I went back to the same ski slope, had the same sort of glorious day on the slopes and…came home to the same vision loss I had when I went. That was a bit of a relief! [To read about that day of skiing, it’s The Perfect Storm.]

I cannot tell you I am above engaging in a bit of superstitious thinking about such things. I was relieved when nothing happened.

Anyway. What does my vision look like now ? I have a fuzzy section pretty much in the middle of things. Anything I want to focus on is not all there. I recognize people across a room by body type or other clues. I can see faces well enough to identify them from about two feet.

If I am running the dogs at the dog park, they can disappear into my blind spot at maybe 20 yards or so. That is a guesstimate. I am definitely not able to drive. There were men working on the road the other day. I did not see them until we were maybe 30 yards away. Not enough distance to stop if I had been driving at the same speed.

Reading is done but is greatly curtailed as compared to my pre-AMD rates. I can read a couple of pages of standard font using eccentric viewing. I have a terrible time reading handwriting, especially handwriting of those I do not know. Heck, sometimes I have trouble reading my own handwriting! [To read Sue’s page describing how she uses eccentric viewing, it’s How She Sees What She Sees.]

I am typing this with a standard, 12 point font. I read it back to myself and find typos at a fair, not excellent, level. That is on my iPad. If I am writing reports on the standard laptop I use 28 point font. After the office staff puts it in standard form, I proof it using my CCTV.

I am able to do most of my life skills just fine…or as fine as I ever did. I have never been a housekeeper or a cook. If I don’t want to resort to using my toys, I sometimes have trouble reading directions. I have trouble plugging plugs into outlets and, at the beginning of the cold weather, zipping my jacket can be an event.

In other words, it is not awful. A few toys, a few tricks and a little help from my friends and I am making it. This is three years into being legally blind.

Again, a reminder: I have geographic atrophy. That is “the other” advanced age-related macular degeneration. Even though we dry folks make up something like 80% of the AMD population, we get short shrift.

Why? Well, we do not have the dramatic changes in vision or the severe damage the wet people can have. We also do not have any treatments. If any one knows the term AMD and he finds out I have it, he will almost always ask about “eye shots”. Afraid not, buddy. No treatment. No cure. This girl is dry.

I gotta go, but I refer you to some pages Lin is putting on the FB page. Not everyone gets wet AMD. Most of us actually have dry.

Do I think I will get wet AMD? Nope. None of my doctors think I will either. GA is my way.

Thanks again for being with us!

[By the way, February is also AMD and Low Vision Awareness Month. What are YOU doing to make more people aware of these two important topics?]

Written February 2nd, 2019

Next: READING AND WRITING

Tech Tuesday: App Spotlight – Be My Eyes

Have you heard about all the smartphone and tablet apps but think you have to be a ‘computer geek’ to learn how to use them?  I’ve got the app for you!  It’s called Be My Eyes.

The article Be My Eyes: Get This App And Help The Blind explains it well and has photos to show you what you should see on the screen when you use it. The article says, “Many iPhone users with visual impairments use a video FaceTime or Skype call with a friend for a brief session of sighted help—to find a hotel room door, for instance, or to help set the controls on a washer or dryer. But what if your friends or family members are not available when you need assistance? Or maybe you call the same person again and again, and you worry you might be overstaying your welcome?”

Be My Eyes pairs sighted volunteers with visually impaired people who could use another pair of eyes.  The app is free both to download and to use.  It’s available both for Apple (App Store) and Android (Google Play) devices – smartphones AND tablets.

After you download the app, you basically click on it and follow the instructions:

  • You’ll be asked to choose from:
    • I am sighted
    • I am blind
  • If this is your first time using it, you’ll be asked to create an account and be asked to allow the microphone and the camera to work with the app.
  • If you’re calling for help, you’ll be told that you are waiting for the first available helper.
  • You will hear the helper’s voice. They’ll hear yours and will see what your forward-facing camera is pointed at. The helper may ask you to move the phone or tablet a bit so they can see what you want. They may tell you to turn on the light on your device so they can see better.
  • The uses are really unlimited!
    • Do you want to know the instructions on a can of soup?
    • Do you want to see the expire-by date of something in the fridge?
    • Shopping and can’t find something?
    • Can’t find socks that match?
    • Did you drop something
    • More ideas here–>https://www.bemyeyes.com/get-started

Here’s are some GREAT videos with demonstrations.

A Pretty Good Monday

Monday, Monday… Let’s hope it will be all we hoped it would be. (The Mamas and the Papas 1966) . We are going to run errands and going to add a stop at a low vision store in a city not too far away.

I had no idea it even existed until a friend of a friend put me on to it. Network. Network. Network.

Monday afternoon

So far, except for the rain that has me California Dreamin’ (The Mamas and the Papas also 1966), this has been a decent day. We ate at a “nationally-known seafood restaurant” and then went to the low vision place.

The store is pretty small, and they admitted there is a lot more in the MaxiAids catalog. (MaxiAids is a great resource!) What was cool, though, was I got to use the IrisVision goggles for a quick demo.

The IrisVision system combines a Samsung in a virtual reality (VR) headset with a Samsung Galaxy phone to provide magnification at several different distances.

The IrisVision system has a “bubble” that you can use to zoom in on things in the larger view. I had some problems with that because the clock face looked as if it had been imprinted on a beach ball. I liked what the woman I was talking to called the “TV view” much better. The goggles can be focused so you don’t have to deal with your myopia (or whatever) when using them. There is a nice, wide field of view.

Overall, in a very short presentation, I was impressed with the quality of the image and the magnification capacities of the system. I was not thrilled with the weight of the goggles, the battery life (about three hours) or the price.

Not sure they can do anything about the weight right now. They are reported to be working on the battery life and the price. The woman I spoke with said the price for the whole system is $2500. Both she and the website indicated the IrisVision system can be purchased on credit for $100 per month. That is about two years. I heard a rumor they are not charging interest, but I do not have that substantiated. [Lin/Linda: Actually, their website says that payment plans “start at” $81 per month and they DO charge interest: “$80.86/mo. based on a purchase price of $2,500.00 at 10% APR for 36 months. Rates from 10–30% APR.” I personally believe that the prices of this type of visual aid will be coming down now that there’s more demand and more competition. There are more of these headworn devices being developed and they have more features. I personally wouldn’t buy one – yet. ]

The place I went has purchased three or four of them and have loaned them out to clients. There was some sort of grant involved.

Anyway, I gave the woman our card and asked her to see if any of the clients using the IrisVision system would like to write a page. Maybe we will get feedback from someone who has used the thing for more than five minutes….and remember, should any of you want to be a guest author, we would love to hear from you. [Lin/Linda: If you want to check out the current competition, I’ve written some pages–click here.]

And one last thing before I go, being the dog lover I am, I wanted to do a shout-out to Imus, who apparently came from a litter all named after radio personalities, deejays, and shock jocks.

Imus was the reception’s guide dog and, since he was out of harness, I got to love him up. Sweet, sweet dog….and thank you to Guide Dogs of America for making him available to his owner and by extension me.

All in all, glad I “trusted” that day. It was a pretty good Monday, Monday.

Written July 25th, 2018

Next: Gold in Them There Eyeballs

Home

Lookout

This has been day 2 of the partial retirement adventure. I don’t count the weekend. I took the puppygirls to the dog park today. They had not been since they were baby puppies.

Even though there was only one other dog there, they had a great time. Smellfest-2018! They are anxious to go back soon

I got my loaner CCTV set up. The machine itself is not only large but the lowest magnification is HUGE. Better than nothing, though.

I also contacted Eschenbach about repairs. They are really tightening up. Not only no more loaner machines but also you need a credit card on file to get service. No shipping and handling costs paid either.

I got the puppygirls out to the pool this afternoon. Took a look at the pool deck and thought it would be a perfect way to describe geographic atrophy.

What am I talking about? Well, a few years back my husband painted the concrete around the pool. Apparently, his family has something against naked concrete. Anyway, a back injury and my complaining the pool deck looked like it had the mange made him decide not to try to paint again. Being fanciful, I see all sorts of ‘maps’ in the peeling paint. The way the paint is peeling is similar to how your macula is degenerating with geographic atrophy. Patches here and there.

Just a thought. A weird one, but a thought.

And thoughts lead to intelligence which leads to artificial intelligence which leads to a new topic. Tada!

Watch out Microsoft! Google is nipping at your heels!

The Macular Society ran a post about how Google is launching a new Android app. This app, called Lookout, hopes to give Microsoft’s Seeing AI a run for its money. Lookout is reported to be able to do for Android users what Seeing AI does for Apple users. Only they hope to do it better, of course.

Lookout is reported to give auditory cues to what the VIP may meet in his environment. It is designed to wear on a lanyard around the neck or in a shirt pocket.

Lookout is supposed to process things in the environment and share what it believes to be relevant. Sounds like a pretty big order to me!

Supposedly Lookout is programmed to learn what your tastes are and point out to you things that match those tastes. Great as long as you don’t want to experience anything new. It sort of sounds like if the Italian restaurant is next door to the Indian restaurant, Lookout will always steer you in the direction you usually go. In my case, I would be eating a lot of Italian even if I were interested in a culinary adventure. I might not even know the Indian restaurant is there.

Not sure that is the way it is going to work but that could be a problem.

Lookout is again said to have four modes: home, work, and play, scan and experimental. Scan is supposed to have a text to speech feature. Thus, it can read to you.

So, there you have it. Blow by blow of my second ‘work day’ off the job. But don’t worry, you’re going to get a reprieve. I work at the counseling center tomorrow!

Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go!

Written June 12th, 2018

Next: My New Luggage

Home

Audio Holodeck?

Now, I am not one for VR. I am not a gamer. At my age about the most ‘gaming’ I do is on Panda Pop. Pretty pitiful.

What is VR? VR is virtual reality. If you are a Trekkie, you might describe it as a poor man’s holodeck. You get the sights and sounds but not the substance. You really cannot pick up that futuristic beer bottle and smash it over the head of the Romulan that you ran into in some out-of-the-way, third-rate planet gin joint. You don’t get the smells of the place either.

If you are not a Trekkie, get with it! No, I mean, if you are not a Trekkie here is the definition for virtual reality according to the online dictionary: the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image of environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment such as a helmet with a screen or gloves fitted with sensors.

So what does that have to do with us? We have bad eyes and, frankly, we are old ? and not too sure we like where this technological world is going. Or at least that is true for some of us.

But what if I told you, there is such a thing as virtual reality audiobooks? If the floorboards squeak behind you in the story, you actually hear the floorboards squeak behind you? Wow.

According to a July, 2017 article in venturebeat.com, the hot new thing in virtual reality is 3D audiobooks. Put on your headphones, close your eyes and listen.

The mummy is coming up behind you! Don’t you hear his foot drag?!?! Run! I think he is gaining on you!

Binaural (two ears) audio allows us to hear spatially. In other words, we ‘know’ the mummy is behind us and getting closer. This adds a whole new layer of experience to our listening.

Although a Blind Life video that Lin sent me was the first I heard of this, it appears there are quite a few companies that are already excited about audio 3D and offering products for it. When I searched 3D sound headphones I got a whole range of options costing from under $20 to well over $1,000. I also found a number of companies offering 3D audiobooks. It appears many of the titles are science fiction or fantasy although some companies also offer erotica. [Lin/Linda: For the 3D audiobooks I found, you don’t need special headphones.]

While I have not tried 3D audiobooks as of yet, they definitely sound like something I would like to experience. I am thinking the selections of both headphones and audiobooks should expand significantly over the next few years. That is if science fiction, fantasy and/or erotica are not your things!

So, until I spring for a pair of binaural headphones and get to hear what the hype is all about, anyone want to share about some first-hand (or first-ear?) experience with 3D audio? This might be the next, big thing. Let us know what you think. Inquiring minds, ya know.

Written May 6th, 2018

Next: Do You Like Thai?

Home

Sue’s Toolkit – 2 Years Later – Part 2

Hi. Sunday and the snow is coming down! All day I have been fighting “it’s snowing! I don’t have to do my work! We will have a day off tomorrow!”

That’s me, by the way. There are no school-aged kiddos in this house. I have been fighting procrastination ever since the snow started around noon. Did manage to get some of my ‘homework’ done. One report written. I don’t want to think about how many more to go!

So, taking time to write a quick page before going on to report #2. I got one of my mymacularjournal.com ‘homework’ assignments back from Lin. Full of ‘red marks’! “Did you mention this? How about that?” Good grief!

I told her I would blame my having to do this page on her.? So there. [Lin/Linda: What can I say…we have high standards here. ::grin::]

Here we go…what has survived the test of time redux.

First of all: these are not advertisements. There are plenty and PLENTY of other products that mostly likely work as well. These are the ones I tried and they worked for me. I have no investment in any of this stuff. If you use other things and like them better, make a comment, write a page. We want to hear. Also, caveat emptor. If you buy something and “hate it!”, it’s not my fault. These are not recommendations.

Now that that is out of the way…my CCTV is from Low Vision International. The model is the Magnilink Zip 17. The 17 is for the screen size. Lin wanted me to tell you what I have and like but, remember, there are probably dozens of others. The big selling point for this one is it is portable. Maybe about 20 pounds including the case. It goes to school. It goes to the office. It goes home. Good deal. Don’t need portable? Maybe this one is not for you.

Lin also wanted me to mention the iPad with the Justand. I seldom use it but if you cannot get someone to plop down $3500 for you to get a CCTV?  The iPad on the Justand is a viable alternative. [Sue wrote about the inexpensive Justand that holds the iPad above what you want to look at. You can see the image on the screen and can enlarge it as needed.  Her page Good Stuff Cheap.]

Why do I seldom use it? I have a portable CCTV. Using my iPad as a magnifier means it is not available for anything else.

Like watching TV for example. Lin asked how I watch TV on my iPad. (I think she knows. It’s a test.? She wants to see if I really know!) I went to the app store and searched for some of my more favorite networks. I have CBS, NBC, PBS and FOX apps on my iPad. You have to ‘subscribe’ (read ‘buy’) if you want the good stuff. By good stuff I mean prime time and current, but sometimes they throw you a bone and you can watch your shows for my favorite word: free. Most of them require you watch the commercials, but sometimes the commercials are the best part! [You can also subscribe to services such as Hulu and Netflx and watch their programming on the TV or on your tablet.  If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can also watch TV shows and movies on the TV or tablet many are free, some have a cost.]

And when I say require, I mean just that. You cannot fast forward through them. But you can go to the bathroom or get something to eat if you want.?

Oops. This is getting long. Catch up on the rest of the questions later! I gotta get something to eat. (Bet you thought I was going to say something else!?) Bye!

Written Feb. 1st, 2018

Continue reading “Sue’s Toolkit – 2 Years Later – Part 2”

Sue’s Toolkit – 2 Year Later – Part 1

Allow me to start this page with a statement of fact: I am not normal. I do housework under duress. If God wanted me to cook, he would not have invented Chinese buffets and frozen lasagna.

In short, if you are looking for tips and equipment that will make cleaning and cooking easier for someone with a visual impairment, this page is not the place.

That place IS MaxiAids. They have a fantastic collection of adapted materials. Many of their products are designed to help with domestic drudgery…ah, chores. If you are in need of those sorts of products, MaxiAids is wonderful.

Oh, and by the way, none of these are advertisement or recommendations. All of this stuff I either use or, in the case of the MaxiAid stuff, had pointed out to me as a valuable resource. What fits my needs may not fit yours.

Also, if you want to buy any of those types of products, use them and write reviews, welcome guest authors! It just ain’t going to be me doing it.

[Lin/Linda here with a very red face! After all Sue’s fuss about my ‘grading’ her page, she caught me!  I’d forgotten to publish THIS page first.  Whoops!  There are a lot of things I could blame it on but I’ll spare you all.  Sorry, Sue.  You can fire me anytime.  ::grin::]

What I am going to do is do a brief rundown (apparently better than a run-over) of what I have used that has stood the test of time. What technology am I still using two years later?

Let us start with what I just ordered: mini monoculars. Yes, I have had several. The problems with them are 1) they don’t survive water – especially salt water – well and 2) they are not built to be chew toys. The last one I had got chewed to bits. Puppygirls strike again. The one immediately before that fell off a paddle board in the Bahamas. Several times in fact.

When not being gnawed or submerged, the mini monoculars are great for surveying your surroundings from a distance. They are good for street signs and identifying what is running across the field towards you. Yikes!

I bought a larger monocular. I also bought a small pair of binoculars. They were both too heavy to wear around my neck all the time.

What I would recommend more than anything is an iPad. My iPad may be my prize possession. With the zoom feature I can do scads of things! It is onto my iPad that I have downloaded all sorts of free apps including apps for major television stations.

I am not a big television fan. If it doesn’t have NCIS somewhere in the title, I probably don’t watch it. However, when I do want to watch a program, I can often stream an episode of something or other for free.

The really good thing about watching TV on the iPad is your ability to move the screen as close to your nose as you need to. Remember relative distance is a way to magnify. Also with the iPad you can replay a scene if you don’t quite get what happened.

I have talked about all sorts of apps that are on my iPad. Honestly, I may use the KNFB Reader occasionally and NaturalReader occasionally but not all that often. My eyes are still strong enough I can use the iPad camera with a free magnifying app to read menus and other short stuff. [click here for a good article about the features of the iPhone and iPad that make them so good for those with low vision.]

If I want to read a book, I use BARD, also an app on my iPad.  Remember you have to be declared legally blind to get BARD. If you are not legally blind you can buy e-books and zoom them. [Read more about BARD and e-books in Sue’s Page Around the World of Books.]

I am over my 500 words so I will just quickly mention two other things. The first one would be Zoom Text. If you are working on a desktop computer – or at least using a large monitor – ZoomText makes life much easier. Navigation can be a bear since half the page is off the edges, but at least you can see the half that is on the screen.

Last but not least is my CCTV. I use that nearly every day. Without it, I feel like I lost an arm. I can write checks and notes using it. I can read articles for pages. It gets used.

Once again, my CCTV was $3500. Mine was paid for because they wanted to keep me working. You may not have that opportunity. However, spare $3 or 4K? The investment, in my mind, would be worth it. [There are SO MANY CCTV products that we can’t review them at this time.  Search the Internet, ask your Low Vision Specialist or other resources.]

That is it. That is barebones what I actually use after two years being a VIP. Hope the info helps.

Oops! PS I forgot my Max TV glasses! No TV but they are great for doing classroom observations, seeing my students in class and watching movies and live theater performances.

written Jan. 31st, 2018

Next: Sue’s Toolkit – 2 Years Later – Part 2

Home

Underwhelmed

It appears the only time I get to write anymore is when I am waiting for my ride. I may have to leave this and dash out the door at any second. Or dash upstairs and grab a new pair of pantyhose. Whatever possessed me to put on stockings with two ankle biters (literally! ) in the house is beyond me.

Speaking of my puppygirls, I cannot believe they are zeroing in on four months of age and 30 pounds each! They are totally, TOTALLY! a formidable demolition crew. They are now tall enough to reach the tops of tables and nothing is safe.

Finding a matching pair of gloves or slippers is also a challenge. Yesterday I had on one slipper sock and a slipper! Who cares if they matched? We are all friends here!

I have been aware I need to write the final page on Seeing AI. I have been using the scene option on and off with mixed results. Etta Puppygirl was NOT pleased to be called a cat! Basic scenes such as a Christmas tree at the Y are dealt with a little more efficiently. The Christmas tree was identified correctly. However, a rack of little girls’ gymnastic leotards was identified as papers on a shelf.

It appears they have backed off from attempts at being exact in their descriptions. When I tried taking a photo of a coffee maker I was told it was something indoors. I also got some responses that suggested the machine was not sure what it was. I find it refreshing when a machine admits its shortcomings!

I guess my final word on all that is something along the lines of “Great progress but still a ways to go.” I am a ridiculously hard critic, I am aware, but I would not depend on the app at the level of accuracy I have gotten from it. Maybe if I were blind and getting 50% accuracy I would be thrilled. With the vision I have, I am sort of underwhelmed.

On to the person recognition feature. I admit, I tried it one time. I recently cannot get my act together. Work, pups, researching retirement, etc, and it is bedtime. The one time I did try it, the thing thrilled my 54-year old gym buddy. It estimated she was 33! It also said she was happy. My buddy has a great smile.

Not much of a review, I admit. Anyone else want to take on the assignment? I am a very harsh critic and some of you may be more pleased than I have been.

I still see scenes and I use other clues to recognize people. Remember to use setting, body type, posture and walk not to mention voice to identify people. In two years I have succeeded in training one – that was 1 – person to tell me his name when he starts to speak to me. In other words, don’t hold out hope most people are trainable! Another option is to buy a monocular and check out faces that way.

That is it for now. Gotta roll!

Written January 12, 2018

Next: Let Us Try

Home

Battle of the Apps: Part 3

Waiting for exercise class after a very busy day. You would think things would calm down but they haven’t! I got lunch at 3:45.

Back to Seeing AI while I have the chance. I tried the currency reader next. Right now all I have is U.S. and Canadian. I cashed in all of my Euros when we traveled the last time.

Seeing AI identified $1, $5, $10 and $20 from both sides of the bill with no problems. ( I don’t often have $50s or $100s. Sorry!) That is no problems as long as the bills were fairly flat. Crinkles were not read well. Sort of like a money reader in a vending machine.

The Canadian bills I have are probably twenty years old. They did not read at all. It would appear the currency reader only works with more recent issue bills. Anyone in Canada want to check it out?

Same request for pound notes and euros as well as any other currency the system is said to support. I am curious how it might do.

The barcode reader gave me the same problems as the currency reader. Just like the barcode readers at the store. Basically folds and crinkles stopped it cold. Flat, clean barcodes were read beautifully.

The other barcode reader I have is Digit Eyes. Digit Eyes does have more features than the barcode reader on Seeing AI. For example, there is an option for product information such as ingredients and nutritional value. You can also make a shopping list from what you are scanning. Digit Eyes appears to be more oriented towards the whole shopping experience.

It would be cool if it would send you to a website selling the scanned product so you could reorder but I did not see anything like that. Software designs? You can have that idea for free! Go at it!

Remember Digit Eyes also has a feature that allows you to make and read audio labels for things that do not come with a barcode. So, for example, if you made too many cookies and need to freeze some, an audio label and Digit Eyes can later help you distinguish the molasses from the peanut butter. No actual reading needed.

Next up is the Seeing AI handwriting reading option. I took a photo of some conference notes. It was my printing, which is highly legible according to most people. The notes read:

(page) 4 visual images on the brain
Mirror neurons
Memory consolidation- memory brought from various parts of the brain. Recall is reconstruction. “Process of Light” – book
Mix new neurochemicals with it to create memories, etc.

Yes, I agree my notes are not exactly English. The Seeing AI version was not exactly English either. I apparently centered it badly because only the left half was scanned. There were lots of half words. The read text was gibberish. The visual image created from my printing was not bad.

Maybe a better centering option? If I cannot center it easily with the functional vision I have, someone with a more serious disability could have more problems.

It is nice to see this technology, even in its nascent form, getting into the hands of needy consumers for exactly the right price. Free. It appears Microsoft is intent on bringing these apps, in regularly improved forms, to those in need. Kudos.

Written December 29th, 2017 Continue reading “Battle of the Apps: Part 3”

Battle of the Apps: Part 2

Alright. So we are making a little progress. I took a photo of the business card with the camera app and found something that said ‘recognize’ with Seeing AI. I turned it on. It said ‘processing’ and that is as far as it got. How to get it to the Seeing AI app? No clue.

Before, I forgot to get NaturalReader into the mix. I was not able to take a photo of anything and have it read on NaturalReader. I wasn’t. Does not mean you cannot. It just means it is not obvious about how to do it. NaturalReader does allow you to type your own short message and have it electronically read back to you. It also allows you to cut and paste a short electronic message into the works and have it read.  That appears to be its short document function.  [Don’t confuse this with an app called Natural Reader (space between the words) which is a text-to-speech reader for Windows 10.  The one that Sue is writing about is NaturalReader and is available for Apple and Android. There is a free version which is what Sue uses but also one for $9.99 with many more features – not sure what they are.]

In addition NaturalReader allows you to download books from out-of-copyright book sites and webpages. On NaturalReader you can get page after page of text, entire books in fact, without having to take a photo. It does, of course, have to be in digital form first. NaturalReader can read all of your email and blog posts.

I have not read digital files using KNFB Reader but there does appear to be a way to download things from Dropbox. Do I know how? Not a clue. If it is not obvious and intuitive it does not happen for me. If anyone wants to figure that one out and pass on the info, I am all ears. I am not only not Becky Home Ecky, I am not Becky Techy either.

Looking at Seeing AI, I discovered there is a feature that tells you how to center a page but it did not activate when I took the photo. Maybe. About the closest I got to a correction was a voice that kept repeating “no idges visible”. I took that to mean no images but could it really be no idges? That might have been it. [Lin/Linda here: ‘idges’ is not a typo, that’s what Sue heard.]

Bottom line on the document function for me is this: for digital data, I like NaturalReader. NaturalReader is free, by the way, so having that in addition to Seeing AI should not be an issue.

For short documents I like KNFB reader because the camera is right there on the screen and there is no futzing back and forth between apps. That is if you have to use the camera for menus or whatever. For digital data, I am back to NaturalReader for even the shorter stuff. It loads easily. All you do is go to the little plus sign and click it. Find webpage and enter the name of the webpage. It will then read it to you. It also works with Dropbox and a few other things.

It generally takes me a long time to master anything like this, especially if I am trying to figure it out all on my own and especially when I cannot see so well. I may very well be missing important details and shortcuts. That means you may be as well. Pooling our resources on this may help. Anyone else using these apps? Thoughts? Pointers? Let us know. We could use some help here. We? I could use some help here!

Written December 26th, 2017 Continue reading “Battle of the Apps: Part 2”

Battle of the Apps: Part 1

Good morning! On to my assignment! Lin wants me to check out Seeing AI. That is version 2.0. [Seeing AI is available for Apple IOS but not Android.  It’s now available in 35 different countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, and in all of 28 countries of the European Union.]

OK. I lied. I am going to start with the light perception section of this app. I am still in bed, or rather back in bed, because my throat feels rather raw. The light perception part of the app is something I can check out lying here.

Focusing on windows, dark corners, etc. I found it works well. The tone was high when looking out the window and much lower when focused in the corner. Exactly as advertised.

Now this feature is only for a limited number of the visually impaired. The great majority of the visually impaired retain light perception. It is when the entire eye is absent or when the entire retina has been destroyed that you lose light perception. Those of us with AMD generally don’t have to worry. It is, however, a nice feature for those of us who don’t perceive light.

My iPad has iOS 11.2.1 as an operating system. That is important because my old color ID app, aptly named Color ID, is not supported In iOS 11 or higher. I cannot compared it to Seeing AI if I cannot open it. Seeing AI wins by default!

Seeing AI does well with the basic colors. Red, blue and pink were identified easily. Chartreuse was identified as green and in low light, navy blue was seen as gray.

Seeing AI will also identify two colors on a screen. A white tissue on a red couch was said to be brown and gray. A little off due to the light levels. Seeing AI warns about low light so you need to make sure you have good lighting before using the app.

Now moving on to short text. I used a business card from my travel agent and compared the reading by KNFB Reader to the Seeing AI reading of the same card. Remember KNFB Reader is $100 or so so if money is a serious issue, that may make your decision for you. Seeing AI is free. [Lin/Linda: KNFB Reader is on sale occasionally.  Sprint is now offering it free for those who use their wireless service!  I recommend that you follow it on Facebook; at least check out their FB page before you go to pay for it. KNFB Reader is available for Apple, Android and Windows 10.]

With KNFB Reader you take a photo and the text is read to you. Seeing AI does not allow you to photograph the Short Text. Seeing AI app started to read and pretty much jumped around on the card as it read. Was that my inability to keep the iPad still? Maybe. Lin said she had no problems and what she read in the help option was the Short Text feature will read what is clearest first. It is also possible that with my eyesight I did not get a clear fix on the material. Check it out and see what happens for you.

KNFB Reader has a feature – the icon is an eye – that will tell you how well centered you are on the page. I did not see that on Seeing AI. Doesn’t mean it is not there. I just did not see it.

In both cases there are computer voices with pretty bizarre pronunciations doing the reading. It is too bad they cannot make some of these trainable as they have with speech-to-text. Those of us in fields with specialized vocabulary would find that helpful.

Anyway, barring someone telling me an easy way to get to the camera and a way to keep your image still for short text I prefer the KNFB Reader.

Back again later for the other features!

Written December 25th, 2017

Continue reading “Battle of the Apps: Part 1”

Time to Watch Some TV

Hi, guys! Lin is crazy busy with all of the new FaceBook members so she asked me to do some work! I have an assignment. Actually, a couple of them. Oy. [Lin/Linda: ah, who started this project, eh? ::grin::]

My first assignment is to put together a page on watching TV. Now personally, I watch practically no TV. TV watching is something I know nothing about.

Like I am not a domestic goddess, I am not an entertainment maven. However, I do a wicked web search, so let us see what the experts say!

First of all, no matter what your parents said, watching TV close to the screen does not – I repeat, NOT – damage your eyes. I have it on good authority, the American Academy of Ophthalmology says so.

What does that mean for you? Move up as close as you need to. Magnification is just about the best thing we can do to help us see better right now and getting closer is a way of making things appear bigger.

And speaking of magnification, Max TV glasses are called Max TV for a reason. They were made for watching television. If I do have something to watch on a screen, this is the way I usually go.

I realize some of this stuff is expensive. I got my Max TV glasses for free. You may have to pay $170 or about a third of that for the knockoff brand. Either of those sums can be prohibitive.  [Lin/Linda here: I guess Sue forgot that she wrote a page called Comparison Shopping where she talks about less expensive MaxTV-like glasses that she found.

The Near Sighted VR app for your Android cell phone magnifies and it is free. I just tried it again with my cardboard ‘goggles’, however, and I still get a shimmer. As motion sick as I can get, I am not doing a shimmer (Shimmy, yes. Shimmer, no). Since downloading the app and trying it on your cell phone will cost you only time, I would suggest downloading the app and trying it. Lin can give us a link to the cardboard box ‘goggles’ that are needed.

Those are your magnification options. Oh, also remember if you need a new TV, get the biggest screen you can afford. Ask the salesperson about good, not famous brand products.  And in this instance, size really does matter!? Oh, my! Did I say that?

Now for this stuff you may need a teen. Preferably a male, but some girls are excellent at this too. Not sure if that is sexist or not. Oh, well… [Lin/Linda: in my household, it is ME who takes care of the electronics…watch what you say!]

Many, many TV shows and movies now come with audio description. I did a couple of pages on this and Lin can provide the links. Pretty please and thank you! Just like closed captions, audio description is embedded and you have to enable that function. Do I know how? Of course not. That is why I would need to borrow a teen from someone. They could do it in 30 seconds. It would probably take me 30 hours!  [Sue’s pages on audio description: Enjoy the Show! and Wanted: Tech Savvy Teen.]

Just some thought about getting more out of TV even when you have low vision. Anyone have any other ideas?

Oh, PS, remotes. Keep them in the same place at all times! Otherwise, your program can be over before you even find the dang thing.

written August 16th, 2017 Continue reading “Time to Watch Some TV”

Did You Drop Something?

Just came from lunch with high school friends. They actually drove 80 miles to visit! Thanks, ladies! Love you!

And that all came about because of a ‘catching up’ email I sent. Moral? Reach out. You never know where one, simple contact will lead. Give people a chance to be kind.

And speaking of reaching out, a reader/member reached out this week. Frustrated by failing vision. Frustrated at how her life has changed. Frustrated by her frustration.

Sound familiar? Thought so. But I don’t want to talk about that?.

The proverbial last straw for our reader was dropping something she needed and not being able to find it. Now this person sounds like a kindred soul. She is inclined to be, shall we say, ‘messy’ and she is also creative. Read some research – like that cited by Clive Thompson in Put Down the Broom…Tidying Up Can Hamper Creativity – and you will see mess and creativity can go together. Our reader/member doesn’t want to give up that part of her personality either. This is even though messiness makes it easier to lose things. But I don’t want to talk about that.

What I want to talk about is finding things you drop. Now that skill is valuable!

VisionAware did a post on Searching for Dropped Objects When You Are Visually Impaired. They suggest you need to remember to protect your upper body. Don’t search stooped over and come up under a lower ceiling, etc. That would be while uttering the memorable phrase “Eureka! Ouch, damn it!” (That is the true quote of Archimedes as he jumped out of the bath and hit his head on a low ceiling. History just cleaned it up a bit?).

VisionAware also suggested listening for the sound of the thing hitting. Soft or hard surface? Things dropped on hard surfaces bounce more. If they are roundish, they roll more.

And may I add, if you drop something and it shatters? Call for back-up, especially if you are like me and ‘shoe’ tends to be a four letter word. A couple of years back I dropped nested, Pyrex baking dishes. My feet were fragged. The entire kitchen was fragged. My husband had to come to my rescue with dustpan and broom. Then off to the walk-in clinic to get glass out of my toe! I tell these somewhat embarrassing stories so you can avoid the same fate.

But again I digress. VisionAware suggests pointing a toe towards where you think the thing dropped and then having a system. Search with your hands in overlapping semicircles. Search with one hand at a time and use the other one to protect and stabilize your body. If searching with hands is not practical (or is dangerous or icky) , use feet, a cane, a broom, etc. The final VisionAware suggestion is to use visual memory of the area to try to decide where the *!#*! thing may have gone. OK, so they did not say “*!#*!”. That was me. You get the point.

And something not mentioned in that post: Be My Eyes. Load it on your phone. Keep the phone on you. After all, you never know when you are going to drop something.

written August 14th, 2017 Continue reading “Did You Drop Something?”

BlindSquare App

When I was at the Summer Academy a couple of people mentioned they were navigating with an app called BlindSquare. They asked if I used it and I was almost sheepish to admit my vision is still good enough to navigate with plain old Google Maps.  It is surprising how social norms change from place to place.  I felt like being blinder would have given me more ‘street cred’, but what the hey, I got by.

BlindSquare appears to be the app VIPs (Visually Impaired Persons) in the know use to navigate. According to its advertising BlindSquare is the “world’s most popular accessible GPS-app developed for the blind and visually impaired.” It is said to describe the environment, announce points of interest and also alert you to street intersections as you travel.

The home page says BlindSquare is self-voicing and has a dedicated speech synthesizer, whatever that means. There is an audio menu that can be accessed with the buttons on the side of your phone. Seeing the screen is not required.

BlindSquare announces your progress towards your destination. It marks your spot (sounds like Beastie Baby!) and can lead you back should you want to return. The app opens with voice over. BlindSquare ‘understands’ a variety of languages. These include many of the most ‘popular’ European languages as well as some others like Finnish and Romanian. The farthest east they go looks to be Turkish. The farthest south they go looks like Arabic.

Reading the comments it seemed to me the developers of BlindSquare are awesome people. They responded in the affirmative to just about all of the suggestions and have been adding languages right along.  Updates are added regularly.

Now for the bad news. BlindSquare is $40.00 in the App Store. There is a free version called Blindsq Event  available in the App Store but it is seriously pared down from the for a fee version. The pay version featured three or four pages of options and Blindsq Event featured one. I would say what  do you want for nothing, but my answer would be ‘the World!’ so I know better than to ask that question.

I just downloaded the free version and will play with it later. As always, I would love to have others’ opinions. Please download it and let us know what you think.

Those who have the pay BlindSquare, please chime in!

written August 2nd, 2017

Continue reading “BlindSquare App”

Around the World of Books

Once again trying to be a ‘good’ or at least productive person and I am not getting very far. Only working part time this summer I have become rather unmotivated!

I finished listening to Rick Riordan’s The Dark Prophecy. That was through BARD. Just a note here confirming BARD has books for kids (real kids and kids in old lady bodies, like me!).

Not only do they have ‘chapter books’, they also offer picture books. I just downloaded Goodnight Moon, all two minutes of it. If you can no longer read to the grandchildren, BARD can come to your rescue. You just turn the pages and provide the hugs.

I also looked at Gutenberg.org a little more closely. They have thousands of titles, all in the public domain. That means the great majority of titles is over 100 years old. If you like the classics, they are available on Gutenberg.org and can be read on your NaturalReader. [To refresh your memory about NaturalReader, go to Sue’s pages Jabbering and Whoopsie.]

Oh, and they are looking for proof readers, too. A page a day would be acceptable. Apparently there was a 20 year moratorium on the ending of copyrights and it expires this winter. Gutenberg.org expects to be inundated by proof-reading work.

If you can edit and manage to read a page or two a day, you can help get the classics from early 20th century into the hands of people who may not be able to afford books.

That is in the States….

Looking for more sources of audiobooks, it appears Bookshare would be available to our international readers, all around the globe. Bookshare requires a statement by a ‘competent authority’ that you cannot access regular text. That could be a family doctor for you without access to vision professionals. Low and middle-income country citizens – countries like India, Egypt and Guatemala – pay $5 sign up fee and $10 annual membership fee for up to 200 books a month. Jeez, and I used to think I was a voracious reader!

Now, this being an American company, most of the books are in English. If you only understand Basque, you are limited to 110 titles. Could be worse. The Bulgarian speakers get 10. Germans hit the jackpot with 4,590. It would appear you should check their holdings before paying your money. Marathi speakers get 120 options. What IS Marathi, anyway?

Just browsing here it appears the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) has something similar to BARD in their Talking Book program. You must be a U.K. resident with a disability that does not allow you to read standard print. Not sure who makes that determination but the audiobooks look as if they are free.

And they give a tutorial on canes on their site! Nothing like a little ‘trivia’ lesson. White canes are guide canes for only visually impaired. Red and white canes are for the deaf/ blind. A long cane is used to help avoid obstacles and a symbol cane is to let people know you have sight loss and really did not run into them on purpose!

Ok. Now many of us know a little more than we knew 10 minutes ago. Anything else for the good of the order? Bye!

written July 23rd, 2017

Continue reading “Around the World of Books”

A Cat Eating a Shoe

Slowly getting my stuff together. The change in phone carriers and the accompanying set-up have been accomplished. Even with ‘plug and play; I am just about hopeless to begin with and then add a visual impairment. Oy vay. The pool that was green because the pump was down is blue again and six days into the two weeks left to live prediction, Beastie Baby is acting like she never got the memo. [Sue wrote this in July.  Beastie Baby has since passed away.]

Not arguing with it. It is often good to be unmindful of coming sadness. If she can enjoy short walkies and cheeseburgers (yes, spoiled dog), why not?

If there is no averting disaster I see nothing wrong with dancing on the deck of the Titanic. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die.

Planning my next ‘adventure’. Since the dog is elderly, etc. we really don’t want to leave her with a sitter when I go to Penn State. That means my husband drives me down and comes right home. I get to get a bus home. Happy, happy, joy, joy. My choices are taking eight hours – including a 3 hour layover – to travel 100 miles and end up at the bus stop in town here or riding the bus two hours to a town 45 minutes away and having my husband come rescue me there. I vote for option #2!

“You can’t get there from here” may not be a totally accurate statement but it seems pretty close. I will let you know how I do. I would like to say America allows freedom of movement for all, but I have a feeling things are not going to be that easy.

Lin asked me to download Seeing AI. Apparently it is all the rage right now and everyone is all atwitter about it. That said, apparently I am not that easily impressed. Seeing AI seems to combine the functions of several different apps into one. It does a better job describing scenes than some other apps, but bottom line once again is, it needs work.

Seeing AI did a nice job on identifying things on the fridge door as “food in a refrigerator” and the Beastie Baby truly was a “brown and white (and black!) dog on a bed”. Beyond that, we had some problems.

Two pairs of my husband’s shoes were “a cat eating a shoe”. Giggle. The app identified the concrete around the pool but failed to note the black inner tube or the pool just beyond. If I were totally blind I could have easily expected clear sailing, tripped over the inner tube and gone for an unexpected swim! Although the examples in the ads were things like “a 20 something girl smiling”, Seeing AI identified my colleague, a 30 something smiling girl, simply as “a person”.

I guess I have to say excellent start, good attempt, but I would not want to depend on this app to interpret my world for me. Too many chances to trip over inner tubes and end up swimming.

The app is absolutely free in the Apple App Store . The price is certainly right! Download it and try it for yourself. [It isn’t yet available for Android.  It was originally only available in the US and Canada but has recently been made available to people in the UK, Ireland and Australia.]

Check out a good review by Sam of The Blind Life on YouTube.

written July 19th, 2017

Continue reading “A Cat Eating a Shoe”

Whoopsie!

Whoopsie. Errata alert. I discovered the NaturalReader does NOT support Kindle like I thought [see previous page Jabbering]. This is because Kindle books are DRM (Digital Rights Management) books. Also iBooks, Nook and Adobe Overdrive. DRM is related to copyright laws. There are ways to get around the software ‘locks’ and you can easily find these offered on the web. However, they are illegal and we try not to encourage criminal behavior. Rumor has it scofflaws use something called Calibre. And that is what I know about that subject. ? [Lin/Linda here: I had to look up ‘scofflaws’ in the last sentence.  It is “a person who flouts the law, especially by failing to comply with a law that is difficult to enforce effectively.”]

I looked at Gutenberg.org and found titles like “The Paper Currency of England Dispassionately Considered”. Whoa.

Numismatists study coins AND paper money (thought it was just coins). Hopefully they would be enticed by that title. Me? Not so much.

So far on a cyber search of non-DRM ebook sources I find nuthin’. So for right now for ebooks on NaturalReader I guess it is Gutenberg.org or nothing. Remember if you are legally blind like moi, you can get BARD. I am just finishing listening to John Sandford’s Golden Prey. Love Lucas Davenport. Also, ebooks will zoom on a tablet so those with less of a vision loss can go that route. Sorry I fed you bum info.

And in other news, I passed the 100 mile mark on my bike today! This summer I have been using it for transportation. I realize for many of you your cycling days may be behind you; however, for those of you who can still ride and live in an area conducive to bike travel, it can be an option. Traveling at 7 miles an hour it is easier not to run into things than when you are traveling at 70 mph.

Of course, I almost had my first accident today. I was riding in the street parallel to some guy on a Jazzy (electric wheelchair) on the sidewalk. He decided he wanted to go across the street, swerved right and nearly took me out!

Maybe I should get a bell for my bike…or one of those horns with the red bulb. Anyway, glad I was able to avoid him. How do you explain being taken out by a Jazzy? It would be humiliating.

And because I am again prattling about things totally unrelated and of no great importance – and because I need about 150 more words! – I wanted to ask if you folks knew we are creating great investment opportunities? OK, maybe not us personally but I found a BusinessWire report on Global Age-Related Macular Degeneration Partnering Deals. They are hyping advice about buying into research and development of AMD treatments! They think people can make buckets of money off of us!

Now, some people may think it is rather opportunistic of these potential investors, but I think it’s great. The only way they can make said buckets of money is to invest in treatment we will buy. That generally means something that will work. If research is stirring up enough interest for people to be buying AMD specific investment advice, things have to be happening!

And that is the end of this page? Continue reading “Whoopsie!”

Jabbering

Greetings everyone! First of all, thank you for all of the birthday wishes [July 17th] and kind comments! I am amazed and overwhelmed. I sit here in my sun room, just kind of hanging out and having weird thoughts, and I sometimes forget there are real people reading the stuff. Probably better that way. I might become self-conscious. Not that that has ever happened in 64 years. No filters here. As in really NO filters. My mother used to ask me why I could not just LIE sometimes.

That said, nothing big planned for the b-day. Fighting rot and decay. I have my first physical therapy appointment for the rotator cuff tendinitis. Also, the container for the sand filter cracked and nicely soaked the garage with pool water so I am having the sand container replaced tomorrow.

Have you ever noticed you spend the first 40 years of life building and the next 40 trying to keep everything in working order?

My friend, the exercise enthusiast, and her family treated me to an escape/puzzle room last week. That was fun. We did the ‘tornado’ room. The premise is you have been hit by a tornado and you have to figure out how to open a locked door and escape before a second tornado strikes. This all involves finding clues and things you will need as well as figuring out a lot of ciphers. We ‘died’. We were only about ¾ of the way by the end of the hour and the second ‘tornado’ hit.

It was low light – a problem – and there were clues I could not read, but this is a team (up to 8) activity and I had people to do the fine seeing. I still have a brain and could sleuth out a lot of clues as well as have input on how to solve the puzzles. Enjoyed it. Would go again.

Low vision does not have to mean no fun.

And continuing to just jabber along here, I downloaded the Near Sighted VR app from Google Play. Lin sent me the cardboard goggles last week. My husband cut the hole for the camera to see through so it would actually be somewhere near centered. I downloaded the app. Nothing to that and the app is free, free, free! [Lin/Linda: it worked better for Sam at The Blind Spot and he says with some upgrades which he suggests, he thinks it will be an ‘awesome app’. Click here to see his review of it on YouTube.]

Not as enthralled with it as I was hoping to be. Not sure if the new phone (Hello, Moto!) does not have a decent camera or what the problem is, but I thought the image was pixel-y and a little wavy. Being a great one for motion sickness I am not sure I could use it very long without having an ‘incident’.  [Lin/Linda: there is also an app for iPhones called SuperVision Cardboard.  Click here for more information.]

Once again, although I would love to believe I am, I am not the final word on this stuff. I think we need other input on these products. Please let us know if you have tried anything and give us your input. My pans may be your picks and vice versa.

Last thing: I ran into a little gem called BookBub. They offer free and deeply discounted email books. Lin says she has used it for years and it is a good resource.

When dummy here set up her NaturalReader she failed to click on Kindle as one place she wanted to be able to download from. Cannot figure out how to go back and change the setting so I am in the process of also downloading the free version of NaturalReader. Hopefully I will be able to get into my Kindle account that way and give you info on how it works.

Once again, knowledge, insights, opinions? Please share. Support the cause. We are in this mess all together. Continue reading “Jabbering”

Timeline Part 1: Advances in Treatment & Care for People with Macular Degeneration

It’s Lin/Linda.  I created this page to go with Sue’s page Not Your Parents’ AMD.  Like some of you, I had a loved one with AMD.  It was my father who was diagnosed with AMD in 2005 at the age of 82.  At the time, I was living 700 miles away and I did not know much about the disease or at what stage he was diagnosed.  He progressed to geographic atrophy (GA), that much I knew.  He was the sole caregiver for my mother who had Alzheimer’s Disease.  He continued to drive (not safely), take care of her and the house.  He was never referred to vision rehabilitation or offered any help other than being told to use handheld magnifiers.

I wondered how things have changed since then which led me to do this timeline review.  Not only have there been advances in the medical end of the field but also in the technology that is allowing people to remain independent for as long as possible.  That is if a person learns how to use the various devices and apps available.

I’ve based the categories of time on an article Age-Related Macular Degeneration
1969 –2004: A 35-Year Personal Perspective by Stuart L. Fine, MD published in 2005.  He says “In 1969, patients with AMD constituted a small part of a typical ophthalmic practice. From 1969 to 2004, the prevalence of AMD has increased, and the methods of evaluation and treatment have changed dramatically.”

I know I have missed many events that have been critical to the history of the treatment & care of AMD.  There is SO much information out there and I’ve tried to use the most significant dates I could find.  Have a suggestion of what to include? Did I get a date wrong? Let me know in a comment or send me an email at light2sight5153@gmail.com.

1st Era: 1969–1979
  • Emergence of fluorescein fundus photography: test used in diagnosis of retinal diseases
  • Development of ‘hot’ (high power) laser photocoagulation, first treatment for wet AMD
  • Relationship of drusen to age-related macular degeneration
  • Other developments:
    • 1976-1977 first personal computers affordable for home use
    • more low vision aids:
      • 1960s large print books became available
      • 1976 large print calculators became available
      • 1969-1970 CCTV (closed caption TV) for reading aid
2nd Era: 1980–1994
  • Clinical trials to evaluate new treatments, especially laser photocoagulation (1979-1994)
  • Development of risk factor data from large and small epidemiologic studies (epidemology is looking for patterns & causes)
  • mid-1980s term ‘senile macular degeneration’ becomes ‘age-related macular degeneration’
  • Other developments:
    • 1982 Vitreous Society was founded; 1983 first meeting attended by 44 retinal specialists
    • 1991 OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) test used in diagnosis of retinal diseases
    • mid 1980s name changed from ‘senile macular degeneration’ to ‘age-related macular degeneration’
    • 1992 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
    • 1983 first cell phones
    • 1991 World Wide Web for ‘surfing’ the Internet with easy-to-use browsers
    • low vision aids:
      • MaxiAids catalog of aids for orders from people with low vision & other impairments
    • technology/low vision aids:
      • 1982 DragonSystems founded Dragon NaturallySpeaking, speech to text
      • 1988 ZoomText was released which is software to magnify text on a computer screen
3rd Era: 1995–2003
  • Evaluation of radiation therapy for neovascular AMD, not proven to be effective
  • Assessment of pharmacologic interventions for neovascular AMD; Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) “cold” (low power laser) with Visudyne (first drug treatment;  2001)
  • Prevention trials: results AREDS released 2001
  • Other developments:
    • 1995 Amazon sells books online (1998 expands beyond just books; e-books 2000)
    • 1996 Google released
    • 1998 first e-book reader The Rocket
    • 2000 GPS available for civilians; 2001 personal navigation systems available like Garmin and TomTom
    • 2000 Microsoft & Amazon sell e-books
4th Era: 2004 – 2017
  • Completion of ongoing trials for neovascular AMD: FDA approval: Macugen 2004; Avastin 2004; Lucentis 2006; Eylea 2011
  • Earlier identification of eyes at risk: regular use of OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) and other diagnostic tests
  • Prevention trials: results AREDS2 released 2013
  • Increased number of retinal specialists: eg, American Association of Retinal Specialists (ASRS), formerly Vitreous Society (see 1982 above), has 2700 members representing 60 countries.
  • Other developments:
    • 2011 First baby boomers turn 65
    • 2004 Facebook
    • 2013 first ‘bionic eye’ retinal implant, Argus II approved by FDA
    • technology:
      • 2007 Amazon Kindle e-reader; iPhone & Apple IOS
      • 2008 Android 1.0 & Android phone
      • 2010 Apple iPad
    • technology/low vision aids:
      • 2005 Apple VoiceOver for Mac users
      • 2009 VoiceOver added to iPhone IOS
      • 2010 FDA approved implantable telescope
      • smart glasses/wearable technology
      • 2014 KNFB Reader app for Apple & Android; 2017 for Windows 10
    • ongoing research areas:

Not Your Parents’ AMD

3 pm Monday and so far it is a good day. The pool guy is working on my new liner. The funny thingee on my tummy is a normal, benign growth and the transportation company got new vans with fancy logos painted on them. No more confusion with two dozen, white vans. Life is looking up!

Lin told me there was a conversation thread in the Facebook group about parents who struggled with AMD. People remember what their mothers and fathers went through and they are determined not to become like them.

I am reasonably sure my father’s vision problems were AMD. The more I think about it his father’s vision problems may have been AMD. I remember both of them using a handheld lens to read the newspaper as well as the really strange interpretations Daddy would have when it came to TV shows. I have no idea what HE was watching but it was not the same thing I was watching!

I have said it a couple of dozen times and I will say it again: this is the best time in the history of the human race to be losing our sight. Absolutely the best. You may not realize it. You may remember what you saw and think we are doomed to go there too but we are not. We really are not.

I tried a handheld magnifier for a couple of weeks. Not doing that again. They are very inefficient. I have my CCTV, my handheld reader and my iPad which can go in the Justand.

[Lin:Linda: To see what Sue uses on a daily basis, check out these pages: A Day in the Life and A Day in the Life:Work Day.]

I can get newspapers on my phone and books from BARD (there are other sources, too, as well as magazines which are available).  I’m able to take a picture of pretty much any text I want and my KNFB Reader will read it to me. The zoom feature on my iPad will allow me to read email and research pretty efficiently. ZoomText allows me to work. (refer to the “Day in the Life” pages above)

If I want to look at something a little distance away I can use my max TV glasses or my monocular. Not too bad.

Depending upon when Lin publishes this page, you either have or will be hearing about audio description services (coming soon!). If my father had had those for the TV we would have been “on the same page” a lot more than we were when we watched programs together. Audio description can also allow you to go to the movies and live theater and actually know what is going on.

Do I want to be losing my sight? Hell, no! This is not a walk in the park but it is not what Daddy endured either. Just the same he made it into his mid 80s and managed to take care of himself until other issues brought him down. If he could do it without all of the toys, I can do it.  [Lin/Linda: My dad had geographic atrophy & took care of my mother who had Alzheimer’s using several different handheld magnifiers & a few other low vision aids.]

Yet another reason to be optimistic is all of the exciting research happening. We are poised for a veritable explosion of treatments. Not cures, mind you, but treatments. Thirty years ago there was nothing.

[Lin/Linda: To see what’s in the research pipeline, click here.]

What can you do? Be willing. Use what has been provided. If you put that iPad your son gave you in the drawer you have absolutely no grounds for complains. Bluntly put? Your extra suffering will be your own damn fault.

What else? Volunteer. Sign up for clinical trials. Join support groups. Share your knowledge and skills.

Life – and this vision loss bit included – is the craziest thing you will ever experience and none of us get out alive. Make the most of it while you can.

Continue reading “Not Your Parents’ AMD”

App Update

Back to the Daniel Roberts article. Actually sort of back to Roberts himself. I just watched a video of him using the LowViz Guide.  [Lin/Linda:  we published Sue’s page Comparison Shopping on June 5th, 2017, where she talked about Dan Roberts.]

The LowViz Guide was basically Roberts’ brainchild. It is an indoors navigation system. Can’t find your way around the hospital or the cruise ship? The LowViz Guide may be able to help.

I say maybe because the venue – be it conference center, hotel or hospital – has to have been tricked out with iBeacons. Your smart device ‘talks’ to the iBeacons, the iBeacons talk back and your device tells you where to go.

(I find that only fair since I have told my devices “where to go” on numerous occasions!)

In the video Roberts demonstrated the app has not only VoiceOver capabilities but also gives you ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ signals. The ‘cold’ signal is very irritating as, I guess, befits a message that is saying “wrong way, buddy!” It would make me want to go the proper direction just to shut it up. (A perfect example of negative reinforcement for you psychology students.)

There is an informative article on the LowViz Guide on the American Federation of the Blind website. It does not say where the iBeacons have been installed and I got the impression the cost of installing these things is not small.

The LowViz Guide app is downloadable for free from the app store. [Lin/Linda: I don’t see an Android version yet.] If you can get a list of places with iBeacons and you are actually going there it might be fun to see how it works.

Another new technology I found interesting was Aipoly. The ‘Ai’ in the name stands for artificial intelligence, of course. Funded by Google, according to Natasha Lomas in a 2015 article, Aipoly uses computer vision and machine learning technology to recognize what is going on in photos you take with your device. Aipoly is supposed to be able to identify multiple objects in a scene. It is also reported to be able to identify the relationships between things in the photo. For example, Aipoly would say something like girl eating ice cream. It is sort of like Be My Eyes minus the thousands of volunteers.

The whole process can take as little as five seconds to have a scene described. The longest time is said to be about 20 seconds.

The most seriously cool feature of Aipoly -and one that will undoubtedly interest our readers in Massachusetts – is the system has the beginnings of the ability to identify facial expression!

As of the writing in 2015, the system was starting to be able to recognize very exaggerated facial expressions! It is not yet ready to describe subtle expressions but there is hope.

Be aware this system does not work in real time, but they are trying to get there. They are also trying to get it into as many hands as possible. I am downloading a free version from the App store even as I am writing this. They have also come out with an Android version. Not sure if there is a cost for that or not. [Lin/Linda: It is free, too.]

I will let you know how it works later. Taking some time to load. And, by the way, I don’t have to be the only product tester. Feel free to download it and experiment yourself. Continue reading “App Update”

How Many Favors?

One of the problems with being a cockeyed optimist and a Pollyanna is I always expect good things and relatively easy sailing. When that doesn’t happen, frankly, I become perturbed. I HATE to be thwarted.

Last evening I started downloading Golden Prey (book by John Sandford) from BARD. It has stopped several times since then.

I think it has to do with too much in my iPad memory. My ability to clutter up my environment extends to technology and cyberspace!

Another case of “do as I say, not as I do”. Deleting books you have already listened to is fine. You can always get them again. FYI for you non-technical savvy folks, your devices will run faster if you do.

My schedule is changing for the summer and I have to figure that out. Transportation will only pick up until 7 pm. After that my coach turns into a pumpkin! (Of course, for some of the ‘lemons’ I have ridden in, that would be an improvement!)

I have been picking up signs a woman who has dutifully transported me up for the last 15 months has gotten tired of it and needs a break. Changing my schedule so that I can ride my bike at least some of the time and take up some of the rest of the slack with transportation should work. I also have a co-worker who has started to take some of the same classes and who has offered to haul me. Also another gym friend.

People truly are wonderful and generous but they are not saints. Problem becomes they hate to let you down and will keep on helping even when it is no longer convenient.

I am starting to think I need some sort of rotation system. I already try to limit how many times I impose in one week. I try to keep it under three rides – counting someplace and back as two – a week for any one person. Except my husband, of course. He drew the short straw when he married me!?

Once again there needs to be some sort of etiquette book for this! Any ideas about the ride dilemma? How many favors for the old, visually impaired chick is too many?

Still haven’t got the new pool liner. Got that call at 7 am as the rain poured down.

And my frustration that you may actually care about….Aipoly, or at least the free version I downloaded, did not live up to its hype! My diet Pepsi bottle was “a wine bottle” (however, that is a thought!) and my glare glasses were “one string of headphones”. I got too close to my sandal when I took the photo so that was “a basket” although when I pulled back and tried again, Aipoly got it right.

Now, in all fairness, I am cheap. The word free can be music to my ears. There is an Aipoly version for slightly less than $5 per month. That one is supposed to be much ‘smarter’. Since I am cheap and not in need of such a service yet, and since I can never remember to cancel those damn ‘free’ trials, I’m not downloading it. If you are in need of such a service and can remember to cancel a free trial, try it and get back to us please.

Type at ya later! Continue reading “How Many Favors?”

Improving Communication: Part 1

TGIF! Greetings from the land of organized chaos, aka my life!

I have not been writing as regularly as I would like. For one thing, as I keep pointing out, there are lulls in the action with AMD. You adapt to a certain level of loss and things are calm until the next loss of vision occurs.

Crank up the magnification and soldier on until the yet next disaster. Lulls are not all that page worthy…and I don’t need a disaster right now.

The other reason is my days have been flying! I am taking more counseling clients and my days are jam packed. Nothing like being busy to make the time fly!

All of this by way of saying, I am sliding into a holiday weekend (Happy Memorial Day!) and I am going to try to pound out a few pages over the next few days.

We stopped for deep dish pizza on the way home. (The new comfort food!) I walked the Beastie Baby in the neighborhood and the field. She drank from every rain puddle (mud flavor! Yum!) and we investigated what looked to me like bear scat (poop, no bear. Life is good). Well fortified and with the ‘adventure’ out of the way, I guess I am ready to go.

The topic was suggested by one of our readers. She is located in Massachusetts and has just helped to launch a new, vision loss support group. (Kudos!) The topic had come up in her support group: vision loss and social isolation.

The short answer is “yep”. Problem is, I rather doubt I can make a page out of that. In trying to flesh things out a bit, I came upon a publication by the Thomas Pocklington Trust. Published in 2013, this literature review contained 44 pages on the topic. Good resource. [Lin/Linda: it’s 44 pages if you download the Word version; 8 pages for the PDF version which is what I’ve linked to.]

The review starts by pointing out loneliness is not part of natural aging. Loneliness and social isolation are also not inevitable for the elderly, visually impaired population. (So maybe “yep” is not the short answer?)

That said, however, it is easy to see how vision loss, loss of function and depression can lead to social isolation and how social isolation can loop back around and cause more depression, etc. People with vision loss can really end up in a nasty downward spiral.

The review acknowledges the problems that can come from not recognizing faces and facial expressions. Without nonverbal cues to go by, communications can easily breakdown.

Lack of good social communication can break down social relations and lead to a drop in feelings of self-efficacy. Feeling you are not able to adapt and cope with your loss once again leads to all sorts of issues and perpetuates the downhill slide.

I think I mentioned before that feelings of self-efficacy are exceptionally important to mental health. The “I can do it myself” attitude can be reinforced by success in using assistive devices. In another page I believe I quoted something that said one of the best predictors of life satisfaction is access and use of assistive technology, both high and low tech.

OK. To be continued. Since some of us have trouble reading long text, I will stop here for now.

Continue reading “Improving Communication: Part 1”

Cautionary Tale

So, yeah. I am a little hard on parts. We just boxed up my CCTV to go into the shop and now I have cracked the screen on my iPad. ? Never a dull moment.

OK. My tablet just capitalized never a dull moment. Huh? Turns out it was a 1950 movie. Not sure why the tablet would ‘think’ I meant or even knew that reference but machine intelligence is different. I seem to add to my fund of useless knowledge quite regularly that way. Tablet making weird and esoteric connections. [Lin/Linda: I think it’s a conspiracy against ME…gives me more weird links to find! BTW, there was a 1968 movie of the same name.]

So, back on track, I dropped my mini and there is a nice crack in the screen. I was all ready to take it to the iPad ‘doctor’ and have it repaired but financially that may not be a plan. According to Lifewire that would’ve been a case of the cure being worse than the disease.

The Lifewire post on iPad screen breaks assured me my iPad would probably continue to work with a cracked screen. They say it will work not only with the nice, clean, linear crack my mini has but even when the screen is shattered! Of course, having spider web cracks on your screen would not help seeing what is there and we have these things, at least in part, to help with seeing! That could be a problem.

According to the post, it would cost $199 to get my screen repaired. I just paid $220 for the next better mini iPad brand new. Mine is now a year and a half old. You can see where the numbers are leading: repairing a screen is probably just not defensible from a financial viewpoint.

So, what are the options? Again according to the post, if your device is still under warranty, you might be able to squeak by with a service charge of $49. Apple Care does cover accidental damage so if you are ‘hard on parts’ like I am, you can get it fixed with minimal financial pain.

If it is not a bad break and everything still works, just living with the crack may be your best option. The article suggests getting a protective case. Exactly what I intend to do. An example of another old adage: closing the barn door after the horse runs away!

I have Otter cases for both my phone and the big iPad that Blindness and Visual Services bought for me. I am pretty happy with them. At least those devices have not broken yet!

I just ordered a neon green and a berry purple mini iPad case from the marketplace for the known Universe, Amazon, of course. $10 apiece on sale. I have Prime so it is free shipping.

I also ordered UV filters for both of the devices. (I actually have my technophobic husband using a mini!) Remember blue light is ‘bad’ for your retinas and electronic devices are primo sources of blue light.

Just read an article saying Baby Boomers are not as aware of UV damage and not taking as many precautions as younger folks. I was going to write a page on it, but I pretty much covered it there in two lines, so don’t hold your breath waiting for the page!?

So once more I am the ‘star’ of a cautionary tale. Protect your devices. Repair costs are reported to be just plain nasty. Cases are cheaper.

Written April 16th, 2017

Continue reading “Cautionary Tale”

Accessibility by WAH