First off, just wanted to say sorry that Automod caught your post and it took so long to get it approved, it didn't notify us that it had been removed for some reason. Automod is still being tuned and we are working out the flaws.

 

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So to your post... It's kind of interesting thinking about what I would do if I had to relearn how to use technology from the ground up.

 

At this stage, being low vision I would say having decent systems off the bat would be good, make sure they are fast, up to date, and secure to limit issues that already come with computers while students are trying to learn. I also think having a mix of OSX and Windows systems (or loading Windows on a separate partition of a Mac computer) would be good to give exposure to both operating systems. On the Windows side of things, I'd definitely have NVDA, JAWS, and Zoomtext on board to train with accessibility software.

 

I'm not a braille reader, but perhaps having braille displays available would be good? I'm not sure how many people use them, so if anyone here uses one and wants to educate me on whether people like them or not that would be great.

 

The last piece is to make sure that touch typing is emphasized. I would not be anywhere close to the level of computer proficiency that I have if I did not have typing skills. I never really liked the large print keyboards, the large print wasn't really helpful and the keyboards were usually poorly built. I actually much prefer having a nice mechanical keyboard, I use Cherry MX Blue key switches which offer a tactile bump and would be great to learn how to touch type on. The goal is to be able to type without sight and I think getting a good learning program as opposed to using large print stickers is the better route in the long run. I learned to type when I could read screens with more ease and when I was very young, we had drill programs that taught us how to type in school. I'm not sure if a blind friendly version of those exists now, or if one could be adapted. That would be something to look into. What my school did when I was as young as 7 was put rubber keyboard covers over the keyboards so that we couldn't even use the markings on the keyboard, this forced us to learn how to touch type which was very beneficial.

 

Anyway, those are my thoughts, hope this helps :)
Edit: Wording

Thanks all. Feedback is very much appreciated. Apologies for the delay in responding as I have been offline for a while. What I have come to find professionally is that when it comes to low vision and technology, it really has to be specific to the user, as we all see differently, even those of us who may have the same condition. I will continue my research and come back eventually should something come together. You may see me pop up in here a bit more frequently as I feel with both personal and professional knowledge I can contribute to the community. We need to raise more awareness about this sub. Thanks all.

Evn if i threw away everything i knew... I cant imagine not knowing qwerty.
So qwerty with an ios like voiceover thing would work for me.

If throwing away everything... Learn braille then qwerty? And an easy screenreader?

I would currently struggle a lot with windows. Or tv remotez.
Voiceover is easy for me, but there is no universal one fits all. Older people would find apple tv like solutions easier. With my mac i can type.l. But then need to hit vo on/off a lot.

My first thought if I had to throw out everything I knew and start over was learning to type. My next thought was skipping pc and diving straight into mobile. Tablets and cell phones already come pre-loaded with the screen readers.
Don't get me wrong, I am glad that I learned how to use a pc, but from my experience from easiest to hardest I'd desire to learn the mobile systems first, then a computer.