Our instructor Simon shares his own experience with visual impairment and explores how technology can help people maintain their independence. Learn about assistive tools, accessibility practices, and why inclusive workplaces matter for people with disabilities.
There are many kinds of disability from mental to physical. I’m no psychologist, so I’ll leave the depths of the human mind to those who know about such things, although as we’ll see shortly, there can be an overlap between the physical and the mental aspects of disability.
This article is written from personal experience. At the age of 65 I was rapidly rendered blind. In the UK there are two terms used, partially sighted or, as in my case, severely sight impaired (blind). So what is ‘blind’? Again, I’m not an eye doctor, all I can say is that in my case my sight loss was caused by something called glaucoma which is usually a build up of pressure in the internal fluid in the eyeball. If undetected or particularly severe the result can be damage to the optic nerve and sight loss. I can’t stress strongly enough the importance of regular eye tests that check for glaucoma. Don’t think you’re immune if you’re young either. Glaucoma can affect people of all ages. In my case it was picked up when I was also diagnosed with cataracts.
Next let me hit you with a fact. Approximately 90% of blind people are not. That is, approximately 90% of severely sight impaired people and people who walk with the aid of a white cane are not totally blind. I fall into that category as I have approximately 10% vision in my left eye & none in my right eye. Here’s a thought. Next time you see someone with a white cane look to see if they’re wearing glasses. If they’re blind, why do they need glasses? People who are totally blind have different problems & needs to those with some vision, as do those who are born blind vs those who go blind during their lives.
If you’ll pardon the pun, going blind has certainly opened my eyes. I’m not making fun of disability. All disabilities are very serious, not only to the affected person, but also for those around them, their work colleagues, loved ones, family and friends. This is where there can be a crossover between the physical & mental side of blindness. Shortly after going blind, I was surprised to be offered all sorts of counselling. I’m a very positive upbeat person & it had never occurred to me that going blind can cause depression and other mental problems akin to PTSD. However, I have experienced other problems. Imagine, if you can, A new smartphone is delivered. OK, now imagine you can’t see it. You might be able to feel for the power button & turn it on, but what next? Is it asking you to select a language? Select a WIFI network or something else? How can you even type your WIFI password? Frustrating? Definitely! Blind people experience this sort of thing on a daily basis.
So, do we write these people off? Is there a place for the disabled in society & the workplace? I say definitely, and so does the law. The Equality Act 2010 and the United Nations (UN) Convention on disability rights, which the UK has adopted, help to enforce, protect and promote the rights of disabled people in most areas including employment, education & dealing with authorities.
How do we do it? Well, there’s the obvious measures such as maintaining an uncluttered working environment. No trip hazards such as piles of paper, ensure that personal possessions such as bags etc are tucked well under desks rather than around them etc. These are common sense measures that make any office a safer working environment for everyone, not just the disabled. But what about the disabled person themselves, how can they be helped to be productive?
Firstly, there are the technology aids such as large screens, screen readers & magnifiers. Many of these appear in the accessibility settings of Windows, macOS, IOS etc. There is also a variety of special software for emails & dictation. Off screen there are devices for reading printed text such as the Orcam reader for single line optical character recognition (OCR) & the Orcam MyEye which can scan a whole or multiple pages. Using OCR both these devices can convert text to speech. The MyEye also works on screen-based text. In addition, it also claims to be able to do a whole host of additional functions such as face, banknote & colour recognition. Of course, none of this comes cheap. The Orcam MyEye, for example, costs around £4k. There are also apps available for most devices that can read documents, emails, web sites etc. One such app is Speechify, which is pretty good and relatively cheap.
There are also web sites that offer to convert documents to speech, however, this means uploading them which I tend to avoid on security & GDPR grounds. Finally, when you mention blindness, many people think of braille. Braille is named after its creator, Louis Braille, a Frenchman who lost his sight due to a childhood accident. In 1824, at the age of fifteen, he developed the first braille code. He published his system, which subsequently included musical notation, in 1829. The second revision, published in 1837, was the first binary form of writing developed in the modern era. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displays that connect to computers. Braille can be written using a braille writer, an electronic braille notetaker or with the use of a computer connected to a braille embosser.. Downsides of braille are that it can take a long time to master, the peripherals are specialised and expensive and it is unreadable to most people.
Whether you’re an employer or an employee technology is available to help with your disability. There are also exciting new developments in the pipeline. One, for example, comes from the US technology company Meta. You may have heard of augmented reality where information about your current environment can be superimposed on spectacle lenses. Well now, that information can also be converted to speech. Using AI you can ask your glasses to describe your immediate surroundings in real time. I’ve seen this in action & it’s amazing.
Here’s a couple of final thoughts for you. Do you have team building activities? If so, on your next session try organising a blindfolded activity. Try some sort of blindfolded navigation exercise. Give employees a white cane & ask them to get from A to B. In a safe environment it can be good fun, but in the real world it can be frightening for a blind person. I know, I had to do it. Even though I have some vision I had three sessions of white cane training, and, at my request, the last session was carried out blindfolded to simulate being totally blind, a state I could ultimately end up in. I can honestly say it was one of the most frightening experiences of my life and I was on familiar territory walking in my local town with a qualified instructor!
Lastly, I’m blind. I read, I teach a number of IT courses, I am mobile, I cook. In fact, I do most things that able bodied people do. I don’t regard myself as disabled, just differently abled.
Thank you for reading, and if you want to find out more, the following organisations may be able to help:
https://www.blindveterans.org - Providing support for vision-impaired ex-Servicemen and women
Your local County Council and district council have a duty to care for blind residents
Your local Fire Brigade can help with safety issues - link to Fire England
And hundreds of other voluntary organisations.
Would you like to know more?
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