“I have Usher Syndrome, which means I was born deaf and in the last ten years I have lost most of my sight. What I see in good light is like looking through a small letterbox,” Lady Usher writes for the Molly Watt Trust. “The bits out to the side and above and below are a white, misty haze. In dim light, or at night: I am almost completely blind.”
“Learning to live with sight loss, when you are already deaf, can be pretty inconvenient. The world just isn’t designed with deafblind people in mind. It’s the little things that are most stressful. The things that most people wouldn’t think of. There are dozens of small daily irritations that pile up, and erode confidence, until the least tiring option is simply not to go out,” Lady Usher writes. “My cane and my guide dog are brilliant for awareness and mobility. I wouldn’t be without either of these things, but they don’t solve the whole gamut of other stresses that deafblind people face. Now enter, centre stage – The Apple Watch!”
“If there was ever a good time to be losing your sight when you are already deaf, it is 2016,” Lady Usher writes. “Just three weeks after I got the watch, my guide dog and I entered a month-long team steps challenge at my work place. Together, we walked almost 200 miles through the busy streets of London, simply by following the vibrations of the AppleWatch and the simple on screen instructions. For the first time ever, it felt like we owned the streets. The whole of London has opened up to me for the first time since I lost my sight. ”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Lady Usher is amazing — and so is her Apple Watch!
SEE ALSO:
Deafblind teen Molly Watt: Apple Watch is very impressive – May 5, 2015
[Attribution: Philip Elmer‑DeWitt: Apple 3.0. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
My wife is late-deafened, and we know a number of people who are at various stages on the deaf-blind continuum. For many of them, the Mac hasn’t had the full range of screen options available in the PC aftermarket. But the tech of the Apple Watch may change some minds! I will be sure to pass this info along.
As a former citizen of London, that’s impressive. The place is a vast maze of irrational angles and alleyways. I’d actually like to try this myself.
What a wonderful article.
Technology working as it should – assisting people in getting on with their lives.
Thank you MDN for sharing the news. I’m going to share it with my community!
After her sight is completely gone how will AppleWatch help then? How will she “program” apps?