Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Ruby Handheld Magnifier (self.Blind)
submitted 8y ago by blind_visionary
As my vision has decreased, I've relied on the Ruby Handheld Magnifier (http://bit.ly/1J8wPhS) for reading paper, credit cards, price tags, etc.
I'm curious if anyone here has found similar devices that do similar color contrast and magnifications like the Ruby?
Kind of a rant, but doesn't it seem like accessibility hardware and software is ridiculously expensive? It is frustrating that visually impaired individuals (or I could see something like the Ruby being very helpful for older folks who are losing their vision) have such high costs for items to help their already tough situations. End rant!
I'm curious if anyone here has found similar devices that do similar color contrast and magnifications like the Ruby?
Kind of a rant, but doesn't it seem like accessibility hardware and software is ridiculously expensive? It is frustrating that visually impaired individuals (or I could see something like the Ruby being very helpful for older folks who are losing their vision) have such high costs for items to help their already tough situations. End rant!
ArtisticProgrammer 2 points
Sincere question: why is this better than an illuminated magnifying glass?
blind_visionary [OP] 1 points
I've never tried an illuminated magnifier.....do they allow you to save an image? With the Ruby, it has a nice feature to do a screen grab of something, which is ideal for a price tag that is too high or too low, so I can take a snapshot of the tag without having to bend to read it in real time.
ArtisticProgrammer 1 points
I just literally mean a regular magnifying glass with several LED lights. So no image capture.
narfarnst 2 points
I've used several HumanWare products. Right now I've got a SmartView Nano that does the job decently.
It is crappy that our stuff costs so much.
It is crappy that our stuff costs so much.
blind_visionary [OP] 1 points
I've never heard of HumanWare, thanks for the recommendation. Looking at their website though it seems they are pretty high priced as well. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems this technology is very overpriced.
narfarnst 1 points
It is. Partly because there's only like 3 main makers of low-vision products. And partly because there's so few customers for the devices vs. how much they cost to make. If you can find them used they're much cheaper, but obviously not guaranteed to last as long.
thatsnotgneiss 2 points
I use an app for iPhone called "Seeing Assistant Magnifier" that was $2, I think. It does inverse and gray scale, as well as normal magnification.
blind_visionary [OP] 1 points
Thanks for the recommendation, this is a new app for me and I look forward to checking it out. I've tried other iOS apps similar to this, and found that reading print was just not that easy compared to the Ruby. I use the Invert Colors feature on my iPhone, and if you go to the Camera app and zoom, it helps read text with the inverted color scheme.
Nighthawk321 1 points
I agree, but the reason its like this is because the blind community is so much smaller than sighted, and teh developer needs to make agood enough prophet. I am totally blind, but I have a few friends who use the sapphire. And there are also several apps on the Apple app store that could be of use for you.
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