February 7 - Feeling Discouraged

I am not usually easily discouraged. In fact, generally speaking I am fairly optimistic. This was not the case on a day last week.

I was at Smart Life in Calgary. Smart Life is an organization that offers an opportunity to try out various assistive devices for people who are visually challenged. Smart Life also offers training in using the equipment. I was there to see what was new and also to get some help in using my smart phone.

I can do quite a bit with my phone. With an audible Siri, I can send and receive text messages. I can use my voice to call numbers on my contact list. I can listen to the time and temperature in multiple cities around the world. I can hear the battery level on the phone and even turn the flashlight and camera on and off. In spite of all this, I know that there is much that I can’t do and don’t know about. This was obvious when I met with Curtis who was my trainer for the afternoon.

At first Curtis tried to lead me through enlarged print on the screen. Then he tried different colours of print on different coloured backgrounds. While I appreciated these efforts, I knew that I would not be able to see the print. As we eliminated each variation, it was discouraging to admit each time, and time again, that I couldn’t see what was on the screen. It reminded me of my early days of vision loss when I needed to describe what I was seeing, or rather not seeing, to employers, doctors and friends.

Anyway, after losing the efforts with print, Curtis went on to demonstrate Voice Over and Screen Speak to me. These are two audible programs that I would be able to use with my phone. Both would give me more information than I was currently using with Siri. Curtis was patient with his guidance and I was doing not too badly. The discouraging part was that it was so much to learn. I came away from the lesson feeling flooded with information and discouraged by the idea that I had a new learning challenge.

This was a week ago now. In the meantime, Curtis has generously emailed me the gist of how to operate the two new systems and I am trying! Possibly the best piece of information that Curtis gave me was that whatever I did, I wouldn’t break my phone. This has given me the impetus to be more adventurous with my phone and the incentive to experiment with more finger taps and gestures. I am trying to stay optimistic and not be too discouraged with temporary failures.