Wednesday 22 March 2017

Blind Veterans and technology

Blind Veterans (see sidebar) have started a supporter newsletter named "Debrief". I was particularly interested in the article in the first issue dealing with technological assistance. At the charity's Brighton centre, in addition to other assessments, IT instructors

help assess veterans' needs and run various workshops and training sessions to help meet them. They start by asking blind ex-service men and women about their lifestyles, what they do and what they want to do, how they communicate and who they want to communicate with.

For those with some residual sight, there is software to make tablet computers usable. For these and others there is also the Amazon Echo Dot and its incorporated voice-driven assistant, Alexa. Such devices enable blind veterans to lead fulfilled lives, and for those still of working age, productive ones.

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