I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about my Good Friday walk that I met a blind man who was walking with his wife.
https://wasthatadinosaur.wordpress.com/2023/04/08/a-good-friday-walk/
While we were chatting he was saying how we need to be content, doing the things we are able, and accepting there are things we are no longer able to do.
Though contentment means “happiness and satisfaction, often because you have everything you need” to me being told I need to be content often brings negative associations.
Often I’m told to be content with what I can do when with a little accessibility I could do more.
I have an app called Seeing AI which has several modes within it and is great for various tasks but is not totally accurate. For instance it mistakes almost everyone in people mode for my grandson who I entered as a named person. It also mistakes my exercise bike with its tubular frame for a vacuum cleaner. (see photo below)
If need any more complex information I either have to use an app like Be My Eyes (where a human volunteer would help me via a video call) or wait for someone sighted to visit me.
Except now Be My Eyes is beta testing a “virtual volunteer” and Lucy Edwards shared this video.
And this one
I may never be content with Seeing AI again. It cannot recognise diagrams in books it only can read the text.
I know that using an app (or a sighted person) will never be as good as seeing for myself (which is probably why I use my limited sight until my eyes are sore rather than Voiceover when using my phone and tablet).
By the dictionary definition I’m mostly content with my life but I’ll never be truly content until the world is truly accessible through apps, and through social change, not only to people like myself, but also to people with other disabilities.
Here’s the point of view from a wheelchair user’s perspective.
https://diaryofadisabledperson.blog/2023/04/09/too-much-labour/
Until next time.
Was that a dinosaur? 1.0 