After all that agonising, I now have a large key keyboard, customised PC and high resolution 27 inch screen and I love it. Matthew put months of research and patience into setting this all up for me, and I am immensely grateful. Next step is to find a comfortable chair! I think I can manage that myself!
I should point out that there are other ways of getting similar results from equipment provided online, but this can be expensive and, for me, would have given more than I need at this time. There are also various exhibitions throughout the year showing the latest technology.
Through this whole process of getting back onto a desktop PC, I have been lucky to have someone holding my hand. I did get excellent telephone help from the Macular Society and tried to get help from RNIB with little success. As mentioned before, the FOCUS charity in Birmingham offer wonderful drop in advice and they have spent a lot of time showing me various accessibility devices and apps.
Over the last few years, four people in particular have helped by sitting at my elbow… Nordie with using various programs, Liz with WordPress and blogging (and much else), Daisy with getting me out of stupid muddles and Matthew with the technology. Of course, not everyone needs all this help and I am, as always, grateful that I have such good friends.
However, it occurs to me that there is a lot of scope for a volunteer or paid service locally wherever you are for people with IT skills to make home visits specifically for people with VI. I know this is a big ask, and that it would involve specific training but perhaps this is one for a large organisation like the RNIB.
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Great looking kit Bridget – so glad you have got the technology you need now. 🙂
Thanks. I really like it.
Waves!
To ba fair to Rnib, they did a work site visit to me when I returned to the office. There were two of them – one was training the other. it was the one being trained who was more useful in the end purely because he had worked in IT like me before he had lost his sight ( the other guy had been blind since birth and had never worked in IT) and so there were things I didn’t have to explain which waved about 30 mins in the visit
I may be wrong, but think their hands on service is probably geared more to people in work than those of us at home. I can’t argue with that priority but wish it could be extended.
Thank you for your vote of thanks! I’m so glad that you have the kit you need all set up and operational now.
The kit is great. I just hope I can develop my other skills to match up to it!