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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2019 - 04 - 05 - ID#b9xnhh
7
What kind of tech could I download to help my grandmother (self.Blind)
submitted by ImDefNotAtWork
Hey everyone my grandmother is legally blind and lives with my grandfather whom is deaf with early stages of Alzheimer’s. They are both in their early 80s and despite all of this they still are independent with my grandmother doing most of the day to day stuff like cooking and doing bills and such. I wanted to know of any apps or technology I could find to help her with her day to day stuff like screen readers for her computer or apps she can download to assist her.

I am just 5 min away from them from my house but if I’m at work I can’t help them till I get home usually if I can’t solve it via FaceTime. She has an iPhone
inboxzerohero 4 points 4y ago
Check out Be My Eyes
[deleted] 4 points 4y ago
Here’s the issue, jumping into assistive technology isn’t easy. There is a lot to learn, and with having memory issues this makes it an even tougher hurdle. Typically I would say if you had the money or a case with the state, to try and get her training on assistive technology, but that may not be possible as that’s harder for older people to obtain. If you wanted, you could try and use the internet to research those things yourself and just teach her the basics. If her vision loss is progressive, I always tell people to teach audio first, even if the person still has vision, as it’s just easier to learn one method.

Based on what you listed, here’s the basic “toolkit” that I know she may benefit from

- VoiceOver on iPhone
- SeeingAI, for recognizing faces, items, currency, reading documents, ETC. it’s the best option for your money
- JAWS or NVDA for Windows. NVDA can be a bit clunky, bit it’s free, while JAWS is a bit expensive (even with the new subscriptions) but may not have as many bugs or issues. This would be the hardest to learn, and any computer programs she may want to use, but it’s very liberating for a person to be able to use their computer

That’s the basic stuff. There may be more for more specific tasks or entertainment, but those things I listed above open up a lot of options. Feel free to message me if you have questions
pitermach 2 points 4y ago
Personally, I think there's no point spending massive amounts of money on JAWS over NVDA for basic screen reading. JAWS is helpful if you need specialised scripting in a workplace or are using advanced features of Microsoft Office, but for the basics like checking Email or browsing the internet you're going to be getting a similar experience except without the upfront cost or software maintenance costs that will come afterward. If you do want to spend money on something, maybe have a look at Dolphin Guide Connect, which is built mainly for elderly people losing vision. It's basically a suite of applications letting you do the most common things on a computer - read and write Email, browse the internet, read news feeds and newspapers, write and print out documents, read and listen to books, as well as play music. The menus are incredibly simple to use based around a task system. so they're presented kind of like a phone menu with prompts like "To read your Email, press 1. To browse the internet, press 2..." and so on. At the same time, if she's comfortable using an iPhone it's perfectly capable of performing a lot of basic tasks on its own as easily if not easier than a computer. Have a look at \[Applevis\]($1) which offers beginner guides as well as a massive list of accessible apps, including a list of good apps for getting started with an iPhone.
[deleted] 1 points 4y ago
You have a good point, thanks for contributing! The only reason I ever include JAWS is because that’s what I know and what I know is taught by myself and my father to our consumers
ImDefNotAtWork [OP] 1 points 4y ago
Yes she has progressive vision loss so audio was pretty much what I’m looking for or just really basic/easy systems I can teach her. I’ve set her iPhone up to where everything is audible when she presses it and she has learned quickly on how to use it. I’ll look into the jaws and seeing AI though! Thank you for the help
[deleted] 1 points 4y ago
No problem. There’s so much tech now that once you learn the basic screen readers you can easily learn new stuff like apps easily from there.
ImDefNotAtWork [OP] 1 points 4y ago
Thank you so much for the help! I’ll message you if I have any questions if that’s ok? And ease let me know if there is anything that comes to mind. I’ve tried setting her up for lighthouse for the blind as well but she is a bit stubborn to outside help unfortunately.
[deleted] 1 points 4y ago
Absolutely feel free to message me if you have questions. I’ll let you know If I think of anything else. I understand that some people just don’t want outside help, and that’s something that’s pretty common especially among older individuals
vwlsmssng 2 points 4y ago
Seeing AI (in the iOS app store) also reads barcodes and will tell you what the food or medicine is. Give that a go yourself to see if you think that could come in handy.
Autumnwood 1 points 4y ago
How about the app Be My Eyes. She needs something small read to her she can use it to connect with a volunteer who will help.
Superfreq2 1 points 4y ago
Dolphin Easy Reader or Voice Dream Reader if she likes those voices better, combined with a bookshare account if you can afford it and free subscription to NFB newsline will go a long way.

A subscription to audible and the audible app, or a free library card and the 3M cloud library/overdrive apps would be useful too.

I would suggest voice dream scanner over Seeing AI for reading actual documents, it seems to be better at that.

Several voiceover accessible GPS apps of varying complexity and cost are out there as well.

She may find the blindfold AKA ears games or RS Games client fun as well, and their are many word games to be found too.

Many text reading options that are simpler than a full fledged screen reader exist for both mobile and PC, for instance Natural Reader which has apps for mobile, PC, and Browser so you can use it everywhere, or Voice Reader which has them for PC and Mobile as well.

IOS and Windows both come with built in magnifiers, but you'll have to ask someone low vision if you want a more full featured one as I'm totally blind and can't really speak on the subject authoritatively.

​

Tell your grandma she rocks for being willing to adapt using technology at her age, and that she's a fine example for others.
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