Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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How does a blind person deal with mail and phone calls to business and government entities? It would be great to have a service that assisted with this crucial task. (self.Blind)
submitted by homerq
It is also very difficult to provide account credentials over the phone. Some entities will not speak with the caller if another person is heard assisting the blind person making the call, by, for example, providing account numbers from a letter sent through the mail.
These two difficulties alone practically cut you off from managing your affairs, such as bank accounts, bills and taxes.
What could make this easier? Aside from the direct assistance and dependence on others?
These two difficulties alone practically cut you off from managing your affairs, such as bank accounts, bills and taxes.
What could make this easier? Aside from the direct assistance and dependence on others?
Marconius 5 points 5y ago
Government forms and info are provided in accessible formmats already, for example any correspondance from the SSA is sent to me on a cd in Word format that I can read with my computer. all my bills are managed online or via accessible banking and financial apps on my iPhone. My local blind resource center helps with taxes, though my sighted girlfriend usually does them or we go to HR Block. I don't have experience doing taxes by myself since losing my vision, but there are resources out there to help.
For documents, KNFB reader or SeeingAI can do OCR to make them accessible, plus I have Aira where live agents will help read my mail and documents. Government sites also must follow WCAG AA standards and are generally quite accessible with screen readers right now, and many more things are being managed online which is so much better than paper methods.
For documents, KNFB reader or SeeingAI can do OCR to make them accessible, plus I have Aira where live agents will help read my mail and documents. Government sites also must follow WCAG AA standards and are generally quite accessible with screen readers right now, and many more things are being managed online which is so much better than paper methods.
Amonwilde 5 points 5y ago
The answer really is automation and doing everything on the computer. I do everything through a browser and 99% of it is automated and doesn't require my intervention. The rest I do on the phone. Once in a blue moon I'll ask my partner for some help with mail. Credit cards are paid off automatically, bank statements come in through email (and get archived because I don't care to read them, generally), and my rent checks go out from my bank to my landlord.
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