Both sides of technology

Call me fussy or call me picky! Call me whatever, but as a Blind person, I often look at technology from both sides of the fence.

On the one hand, technology has helped greatly to improve my quality of life. I can use a computer to help me do my work, send and receive emails, and surf the Internet. I can use technology to help me in my daily life: talking clocks, microwave, digital recorder, thermometer, light and color detectors, bank note readers, mobile devices, and other types of talking gadgets. I thank all of those manufacturers and developers who have taken the time and commitment to make it all happen.

So what now, you may be asking, would the other side of technology be? Well, it is whenever I run into problems with any of my access technology (software and hardware) and I am unable to find ready help to assist me to get them back up and running. Over the years, I have managed to find very dependent and hardworking individuals who are willing to help troubleshoot and problem solve but in some cases I have had to discard some of my talking gadgets when they have stopped working in favor of going out and buying replacements.

You may be thinking that it is no different for a sighted person and this is very true but for a blind person it is much more difficult, and why? Because there are fewer people around who possess the knowledge to troubleshoot and problem solve in the access technology arena as well as to fix talking devices whenever they fail to work.

I’m Donna J. Jodhan, your friendly accessibility advocate, wishing you a terrific day and encouraging you to go out there and share my thoughts with others. Visit www.nfb.org to learn more.