As a guide dog handler, I try my best not to use ride sharing services to get a ride. The anxiety of trying to find the vehicle, then wondering if the driver will refuse to take me because of my dog, just isn’t worth the stress. Then, there’s the problem of a language barrier if the driver doesn’t speak English well. I’ve been dropped off at a wrong address, in the middle of a construction zone. The thought of that experience haunts me every time I have to use a ride sharing app. I am not alone. Uber has been reaching out to people with disabilities, and especially those with vision lo ..read more

My first bird house was a well-crafted, sturdy red barn that hung empty for about seven years with no visitors. It came with us when we moved to a new house and amazingly, we had our first tenants, a family of sparrows. That bird house lasted for 20 years until the bottom finally rotted out.  When the sparrows came back the following spring, there was no home for their return. So I ran and got a small, nondescript house that should have been painted. Even though this new house was far from luxury accommodations, the sparrows came back year after year, hatching three or four broods every ..read more

  When we requested favorite tech tips and tools for our last blog, John sent along this photo of his tech set-up and the explanation below. We felt this detailed answer deserved its own blog!   John’s Accessible Technology Set-Up For people with visual impairments, we are undoubtedly living in a “golden age” of accessibility.  No matter how you got here — whether you’re low-vision or legally blind, there’s never been a better or brighter time than the present to lead a more meaningful and pleasurable life!  From the traditional “analog world” of braille, mobility canes, a ..read more

  When I was going to college back in the 90s and early 2000s, a textbook consisted of a cardboard box with dozens of four-track cassette tapes.  I played them on a special tape recorder that I now cannot remember the name of. It was about the size of a textbook, but heavy in my back pack as I rode the train to class. Wandering through the book pushing the fast forward and rewind buttons, I had to listen for beeps to get from chapter to chapter with no way to bookmark a passage or write a note. My CCTV (now called a video magnifier) was a black and white, 26’” tube TV that took up a ..read more

Ditching Resolutions My New Year’s resolutions were always bright and shiny, full of hope on New Year’s Day. But, by the end of the month they morphed into failures. When I set specific goals – I will walk 10,000 steps every day – one miss started a downward spiral. And just a few days without those steps meant defeat. I would give up trying. I fully embrace the idea of self-improvement. And, the beginning of the year seems like a great time to start on a path to something. So, I just changed up my approach. Pick a Theme Last year I picked a theme instead of making a resolution. The beauty of ..read more

Rowan, a yellow lab, and Weller, a black lab, are two of Kathy’s guide dogs   Around the holidays, I like to send a letter to my guide dogs puppy raisers. Included in the letter are photos of the dogs I have taken throughout the year. Finding those photos in the photo library has always been a challenge to do independently. But Apple’s Photo app has made searching for specific photos a little easier. Here’s some ways you can search, explore and label your photos using VoiceOver. This will allow you to better organize and share your shots.   Finding your photo Open the photos app Do ..read more

It’s a blizzardy Saturday in Chicago; sidewalks slick, visibility low, fingers and toes frozen. I get a text from my client, and he has a conundrum. His usual route to his book club is just one stop away on the L. He knows the route well and normally has no difficulties traveling it. But he also knows that he has other transportation options, or he could participate through Zoom. But he doesn’t want to use his other choices because “it’s usually a very simple thing to do.”   What is Interdependence? My client and I used his conundrum to talk about the term “interdependence.” Interdepende ..read more

  Back in December of 2020, Microsoft’s Seeing AI released an update for the app that included a brand new channel. The new channel, called World, uses an iPhone’s LiDAR sensors to gain a spatial, 3D depiction of the environment in the phone’s camera lens. Using 3D spatial audio, the app notifies the user of the location of different objects within the camera’s field. Although this new channel was released in late 2020, I just recently discovered the new feature. Unfortunately, the LiDAR sensor is only available on certain models of iPhones running iOS 14. These include iPhone 12, iPhone ..read more

Yikes, it’s a science experiment! Do you have one of these growing in your fridge? It’s so easy to miss a food item we think we’ll eat later only to have it hiding on the bottom shelf, Way in the back. Possibly dripping into your crisper drawer. Yuk! When you throw vision loss into the mix, these science experiments might happen more often in your fridge. The holiday season is always full of lots and lots of food. Whether you are cooking for others, preparing a dish to take to a gathering or want to make room for those delicious leftovers, you’ll want to make sure your fridge is ready to hand ..read more

    QR Codes in the Community QR codes are becoming more prevalent in the community. You will find them at restaurants to order your meal, get games on your phone, and obtain information about a community event. QR Codes, or Quick Response codes,  have been described as a “modern three-dimensional” form of the traditional two-dimensional bar code. Each code is a unique square usually made up of black and white dots. In comparison, a traditional bar code is a unique pattern of of vertical bars of black or white. These codes are printed on paper or otherwise displayed on flat surf ..read more