Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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What all difficulties do visually impaired people face during COVID? What are the possible solutions? (self.Blind)
submitted by Yuvi20147
I am studying User Interface and Experience Design, we were being taught how to gather information and solve problems. Our teacher brought up the topic about the difficulties blind people face during COVID, and how can we solve them. After digging into the topic I realised how little i knew about this topic. We are going to interview some NGO workers and hopefully some visually impaired to get an insight on all the problems they go through especially during lockdown and social distancing, and think of possible solutions.
It would be great if some of you could express your troubles aswell, for eg,
-Most information about COVID rise is shown via graphs and bar charts, such information is difficult to transition into something a visually impaired person can understand, thus creating lack of information.
-alot of websites may not support blind peoples communication medium. Alot of orders didnt support cash on delivery during peak COVID lockdown, so i assume online transactions are a bit difficult( i might be wrong, but i dont know if online transaction provides support for blind people)
- or any other troubles ( obvious troubles is difficulty in navigating sanitation booths provided by government in public, and the need to touch elevator buttons, etc)
Our ignorance on this topic is blinding( pun intended XD), so it'll be really helpful if you guys can help us with some insights.
It would be great if some of you could express your troubles aswell, for eg,
-Most information about COVID rise is shown via graphs and bar charts, such information is difficult to transition into something a visually impaired person can understand, thus creating lack of information.
-alot of websites may not support blind peoples communication medium. Alot of orders didnt support cash on delivery during peak COVID lockdown, so i assume online transactions are a bit difficult( i might be wrong, but i dont know if online transaction provides support for blind people)
- or any other troubles ( obvious troubles is difficulty in navigating sanitation booths provided by government in public, and the need to touch elevator buttons, etc)
Our ignorance on this topic is blinding( pun intended XD), so it'll be really helpful if you guys can help us with some insights.
Hallowss 6 points 2y ago
Shopping! Only allowing one person from a household into a shop, we were turned away from shops many times despite my country allowing disabled people to shop with someone
There weren’t shop workers free to help me either
There weren’t shop workers free to help me either
Yuvi20147 [OP] 0 points 2y ago
That does sound troublesome. Is online ordering a good alternative for you then?
Hallowss 3 points 2y ago
Unfortunately no, ordering online was reserved for people who weren’t able to leave the house at all during lockdown
The earliest delivery slot I could have gotten would have been 3-5 weeks away
The earliest delivery slot I could have gotten would have been 3-5 weeks away
noaimpara 4 points 2y ago
The things that are really getting to me : public transportation slowing down where I live, markings on the floor than I can’t see, practicing social distancing when i have no depth perception (6ft means nothing to me), and shopping when I can’t get products right up to my face to read what they are. Also masks get in my vision field and make me even more blind and the glass shields in stores make it hard to make transactions without looking like an idiot.
Online school was not easy for me at the end of last year, might be easier this year since the school now had more time to figure things out and make it more accessible.
But at the end of the day I still consider myself privileged and my life isn’t that hard. Grateful for that.
Online school was not easy for me at the end of last year, might be easier this year since the school now had more time to figure things out and make it more accessible.
But at the end of the day I still consider myself privileged and my life isn’t that hard. Grateful for that.
[deleted] 4 points 2y ago
My biggest issues are shopping for food and supplies. Finding guides. And finding cleaners. Not yet found any solutions.
Yuvi20147 [OP] 2 points 2y ago
Yes, finding helpers when everyone is trying to social distance seems to be quite troublesome. Thanks for your input :)
CloudyBeep 4 points 2y ago
As you've said, inaccessible information and the need to touch surfaces are problems for blind people. Online transactions aren't necessarily problematic, and working from home may not necessarily be a problem either. One big problem you haven't thought about is how a blind person would go to get tested; another is how they would walk with someone they don't know very well because they might want to maintain contact.
Yuvi20147 [OP] 0 points 2y ago
Also another question, even tho visually impaired people could do jobs in normal circumstances still at limited productivity, or specific jobs they could do really well..... Assuming most such people have been left off during the lockdowns, what all possible jobs can a visually impaired person do from home?
Thanks for your input. I hope to research more on this topic.
Thanks for your input. I hope to research more on this topic.
Swolf_of_WallStreet 11 points 2y ago
I’m neither blind nor low vision, but I work in UX with a sole focus on accessibility. I think it’s very cool that you’re learning about this. That said, I’d encourage you to do a little digging of your own so you can ask more thoughtful questions here. If you look online, you’ll find loads of information about how people use assistive tech to excel in a wide variety of careers. Some of these jobs can be done at home and some cannot, which is the case for fully sighted people as well! Earlier today, there was a post on here about python users, which implies that some blind and low-vis folks must work in development.
Doing some more digging on your own will enable you to ask meaningful questions, which will yield fruitful responses. There are lots of nice people on here who will likely be happy to help you. Good luck with your assignment.
Doing some more digging on your own will enable you to ask meaningful questions, which will yield fruitful responses. There are lots of nice people on here who will likely be happy to help you. Good luck with your assignment.
gumbygirly 7 points 2y ago
OP, this person is pointing you in the right direction. Your tone is very ableist and it seems to come from a lack of knowledge about the accessibility features and assistive technology used by people with low or no vision. Instead of downvoting him, you should take his comments to heart and do some research.
Yuvi20147 [OP] 3 points 2y ago
Yes, it was great to get a reply from an actual UX designer. We are still starting to learn how to research properly, hopefully i'll get better. Personally putting alot more attention to gathering info. Thanks ^^
( it might be a misunderstanding, but i definitely didnt downvote the comment above ^^)
( it might be a misunderstanding, but i definitely didnt downvote the comment above ^^)
Yuvi20147 [OP] 2 points 2y ago
Thanks. Yes, we just started researching on the topics. I'll keep that in mind. We are definitely digging into different things to know more and more daily. Hopefully we get to interview some local NGO's and visually impaired peope soon.
( one thing i noticed from all the online interviews and answers is that blind people in first world countries have more job opportunities. In my country working blind people are still minority, people still just see them as liability to an extent. thus we cant access the situation from online information, hopefully the interviews would be insightful)
( one thing i noticed from all the online interviews and answers is that blind people in first world countries have more job opportunities. In my country working blind people are still minority, people still just see them as liability to an extent. thus we cant access the situation from online information, hopefully the interviews would be insightful)
[deleted] 2 points 2y ago
[deleted]
CloudyBeep 5 points 2y ago
Blind people can have almost any kind of job as sighted people, so if a sighted person is able to do their job from home, a blind person can also work from home.
Yuvi20147 [OP] 3 points 2y ago
I read a post here about blind people being programmers. That was great to know. I think my country still lacks job opportunities for blind people, maybe due to society still thinking of them as just a liability to an extent.
CloudyBeep 1 points 2y ago
The employment rate for blind people everywhere is far too low, but it is better in some parts of the world.
Drop9Reddit 2 points 2y ago
While learning about people with disabilities I would recommend avoiding assumptions and genuinely learning. For example instead of assuming many can not work from how or lost their job in lockdown. You could ask what jobs do some people have and learn a lot about the scope and variety. Most jobs can be made accessible or already are accessible.
Yuvi20147 [OP] 3 points 2y ago
True, i had to take a moment and think about all the stereotypes i had in my mind. One of them being blind people would be less productive, but now i see alot of blind people in different jobs. I'm personally trying to keep completely neutral mind. Thanks ^^
[deleted] 2 points 2y ago
[deleted]
Yuvi20147 [OP] 1 points 2y ago
Uber technically sounds like a solution but now that i think about it, it sure will be more scary. Thanks for the insight.
Drop9Reddit 1 points 2y ago
Id say one of my hardest as I don’t have depth perception is knowing if I am far enough from people near me.
CloudyBeep 1 points 2y ago
A partial solution to the problem of inaccessible information about the spread of the virus is https://cvstats.net.
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