So just for the hell of it, in order,
· Cane, Dog, None, or Other?
· Preferred Mobile and Computer OS and Screen Readers?
· Braille or Not and for what if yes?
I’ll start, cane, android and windows, talkback and NVDA, yes I use braille screen input, or a braille display for almost everything text entry wise and for checking spelling, along with some reading though not as much as I could.
Cane. Which, now that I think about it, most sighted people I know think is stupid. They all seem to think that there’s tiny portable magic radar, sonar, infrared, VR stuff that’s widely available and actually works.
iPad/iOS/voiceover. Switched from Windows 20 years ago, when I could still see you just fine, and have since developed and abiding hatred of Microsoft and Windows, so I can’t say what I use now has anything to do with a preference for Apple device accessibility features, per se.
I still feel that a sun glasses or hat attachment plus a belt or around ribs strap type attachment working in consort, if done right, with weatherproofing, rugged construction, light weight, high user customizability, surreptitious alerts, decent battery life, attainable pricepoint, ETC could be worth something, maybe. But honestly I’m not sure if the tech is their yet to be worth it unless you’re deafblind, and even that’s not a for sure thing. Maybe someday, but I don’t think smart canes or wrist wearables are going to be viable in this decade. To me, good training solves 95% of these problems anyway, but to be fair, that is much more expensive to do. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good and all that…
P.S. I’m not usually that guy, but honestly sighted people can keep their negative opinions about your cane to them selves IMO, they don’t use one every day. Besides, we do use other tech, like GPS, OCR, and live assistance apps to help us, and those of us who can also use echo location, along with other context clues and landmarks.
Over the course of my life I have had the chance to support a lot of tech, including a couple of medical prototypes that were supposed to have that kind of magic. Yet after my vision loss it was what amounted to a long white stick that had the most beneficial affects on my life. Sometimes low tech is the best tech.