Welcome to White Cane Connections.

My name is Sue Boman. Yes, that’s me in the picture posted here. I have called this blog White Cane Connections because I am one of the many people who use a white cane. I began this blog because I wanted to write about a project I undertook in 2012. The plan was to complete a series of walks using my white cane. Between March and September, I walked in 82 different locations across Canada. So, the blog begins by telling of my experiences and the many people I met along the way.

While this particular journey has now been completed, I find that I still have much to write about. I am continuing to make new white cane connections, and so for the time being I will continue to add regular posts to this blog. I am hoping that you will be a partner in the journey.

Sue


Tuesday, 3 September 2024

September 3 - Gadgets and Buttons

Last week our toaster gave up the ghost. It was an old model and likely had reached its life expectancy anyway.

Now if it had been up to me, I would have gone to our local hardware store and bought the simplest possible toaster on the shelf to replace it. Not so with Lyle! Lyle’s first task was to search the Internet. Which new model would have the best features and be the best buy for our money? He compared three different stores and a number of different brands. Finally we went to the store in person where Lyle was delighted to find that the in store price was even better than the online one he had investigated.

Our new toaster has many features. Unfortunately the buttons to access these are all hidden under the smooth outside exterior. If you can see, this is great. We can now toast bread or bagels and regulate the toastiness of each – 1 to 5, depending if you want light or darker brown. There is a separate button hidden under the smooth surface to press if you want to cancel the original instruction.  Fortunately for me, most of these can be preset and all I will have to do is to press the lever to push the bread down.

I miss the tactile buttons of old style toasters and other devices. I don’t like smooth surfaces when I can’t see the instructions underneath. What happened to tactile buttons? Even on our microwave I have needed to glue my own buttons to the surface so that I can feel whether I am defrosting or cooking. I have also glued a raised button to some of the numbers. These new devices and gadgets aren’t made for people with no or little sight.

Still, I’m sure that eventually I will find my way around this new piece of kitchen equipment. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that our other old style gadgets have long lives.

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