She has a number of specialized technologies that can help her through her life and to enjoy her life to the full. She has special newspapers and books for the blind. These books and newspapers are in Braille. Braille is a code, which enables blind people to read and write. A blind Frenchman, Louis Braille, invented it in 1829. Braille is comprised of a rectangular six-dot cell on its end, with up to 63 possible combinations using one or more of the six dots. Braille is embossed by hand (or with a machine) onto thick paper, and read with the fingers moving across on top of the dots. Combinations of Braille dots within a cell represent contractions of two or more print letters and Braille characters take up three times as much space as print. This makes it a lot easier for her so she can understand the text in the book and the newspapers.
She has a tape machine that plays and records tapes to her computer, which is very handy because the computer can change it into Braille so she can understand the tapes. Those tapes that she has, can be read by her computer, so either the computer can read it out with a special program loaded on the computer, or they can be printed out, using a printer, in Braille so she can understand the tapes. When the tapes are read and copied onto the computer, so she can go back and read them again and again, the books are then distributed.
In the kitchen she has a number of very helpful technologies to help her cook and for her safety in the kitchen. She has talking scales and a talking oven. These two technologies have the ability to talk to her in a computerized voice telling her when she needs to take the food out and how long she’s putting it in for. She also has a talking microwave and timer, the microwave has a dial and it has 1 dot for 1 minute and 2 dots for 2 minutes …etc. She also has a drinks level, this is a very clever device used when pouring a drink she uses a little ball that has two wires connected to it, that are coming over the edge of the glass to tell her when the drink touches the wires. This enables her to pour herself a glass of some sort of drink without the hassle of having to clean up what she has spilled. The wires beep when the water has reached the wires that are just peering over the top of the glass. Below is a diagram to show you what this technology does.
For all remote controls throughout the house whatever they are for they all have Braille on them so she can sense what the remote does. They also have large buttons so they have more surface area and more chance of hitting the button and finding out what the button is for. This is easier for her as she cannot see, so she has to use her knowledge and understanding of Braille to sense what the remote control does. She also has a mobile phone that has these special large buttons printed with Braille on them, but this specialized phone makes a sound when she presses each button, like a unique identifier in a database.
For when she’s out and about on her own or with a friend and is unsure when to cross a road she comes up to a pelican crossing normally she wouldn’t be able to tell when to cross the road. There is a lever under the pelican crossing controls that spins when the lights turn red, so that the blind don’t get run over. This is very helpful to her for her safety when she’s crossing a road. But on some of the pelican crossing controls they do not have this lever that you twist which is a problem for the blind, but it has them on the majority of them. Also there is a sound that indicates when to cross the road safely, again this sound sometimes does not go off on some of the pelican crossings so sometimes she will have to depend on the good will of the public to be a good Samaritan to tell her when to stop and when the light turns green to help her across the road safely.
When she needs to make a telephone call using the house phone, she uses large buttoned telephones printed with Braille on them so this will enable her to read which button is which and to be able to hit the button more easily than on a normal telephone. Also when attempting to make a call she has a talking address book, which enables her to call the person, she wants. This works by having the alphabet in Braille so she can read it. She can press the letter of the alphabet the name is stored under and then the address book will go through the names of the selected letter, reading them aloud to her and then all she has to do is to press call. She also has an automatic dialer, which is very useful, because instead of going through the address book she can just press redial and will begin the call of the last person called.
She has an identification thumbprint in her house to get into certain private doors and has one for her jewelry box to ensure that trespassers cannot get into it. She also has a top of the range hi-tech special swipe key to get into house. This works by having a big white box outside of her house connected to the door so that she can swipe it near the sensor so she can get in. This is very helpful and useful to her because it means that she does have to fiddle around with the keys trying to find the lock, she can just quite happily swipe the card relatively near the big white controlling box to let her in.
She also has a talking alarm clock; this is very useful and easy to set the times on that she wants to wake up, she just pushes the button to the time she wants and the clock tells her the time that she has selected and then she confirms it. So she can set the time to what she needs to when she needs to wake up. It then tells her the time of the day when she pushes the button on top of the clock.
She lastly has CCTV. She has a sheltered home. This CCTV is shared with some other people that live there; they are not necessarily blind but they like to be able to feel safe at night and be able to leave their home without thinking that anything could go wrong. This assures her needs that she feels safe, so she doesn’t have to worry about burglars etc. The CCTV is actually located at the front desk where somebody is there 24-7 to look out for any intruders.
In conclusion I think that most of the technologies she has meet her needs and basic demands. There are alternative technologies that she could use in a different way that could help her but she has told me that she is happy with her current technologies. She could have other technologies for example: The traditional white cane is still the most common mobility device for the blind. It is a simple and effective tool that enables users to extend their sense of touch and "preview" the area ahead of them as they walk. But the long, rigid cane is not well suited to all situations or all users. Manduchi's high-tech alternative is a laser-based range-sensing device about the size of a flashlight. A laser, much like the one in an ordinary laser pointer, is combined with a digital camera and a computer processor that analyses and integrates spatial information as the user moves the device back and forth over a scene. The user receives feedback about the scene in the form of audio signals, and an additional tactile interface is being developed for future prototypes. In the audio signal, the pitch corresponds to distance, and there are also special sounds to indicate features such as a curb, step, or drop-off.
All of these possible technologies that I have listed above could be of great help to her. She has a lot of technologies that help her a lot in her every day life. These technologies help Miss. X to live more independently, and to reduce the need of support to keep her dignity.
