September 8 - Assistive Technology

In January of this year, I made a New Year’s Resolution to upgrade my technical skills and the assistive devices I have been using. This resolution has been long overdue. For quite some time I have been using an old version of JAWS and a very old version of Windows on my computer. Unfortunately, these two programs no longer seem to be able to support all the things I want to do. So, last week I finally made an appointment with Stephanie. Stephanie is a Specialist in Assistive Technology at the CNIB office in Calgary.

The session with Stephanie was very informative but the more she talked the more I realized just how far behind the times I had allowed myself to drift.  We spoke first about computers and just which version of Windows would support the latest version of JAWS. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with JAWS, it is an audible screen reading program that uses keyboard commands instead of the mouse used by people who are sighted. I began using this program back in 2002 and even then it involved a fairly steep learning curve and memory work for the different commands.

I was feeling a little flat thinking of approaching all this again when Stephanie mentioned the possibilities of either an i-Pad or an i-Phone. Up until now Lyle and I have shared the same cell phone. Although I am able to call out on this phone, I can’t see to use any of the other functions such as texting, google, etc. I even find it difficult to find the buttons to answer a call. I suppose I became quite excited when Stephanie began explaining all the things that a new i-Phone with voice over could do.

Today we took the plunge and I now have an i-Phone of my own. The next step will be to learn how to use it. Even the staff at Tan-Tech couldn’t explain completely how to use the voice over commands. I am keen to make another appointment with Stephanie for my first lesson.

I look at this voice  activated device as a big step forward in maintaining my independence. Unfortunately it will also be a step backwards in the balance on my bank book but that is where balance comes in. Technology of any kind has a cost and one has to weigh this cost against the benefit of the device or program to the user.