Category: Daily Living
I thought this'd be an interesting subject to start up.: If you could start all over with having a small (or maybe medium) empty house (except for basic furniture), and you had the money for this, what pieces of accessable technology would you consider the most important to have? I know most disabled people would want to (and should) have access to everything everyone else has of course, but what would be the main things. This could also include household appliences that are accessible or already accessably labeled.
Also it can include things that are not electronic/battery-operated such as specific types of dishes (if preferred/needed), and other gadgets such as that boiled water detector thing for example.
i'd go all out and make my home a smart home, Complete with x10 compatible appliances.
I don't need much in the way of accessibility though i'd be stuborn about it anyway lol. but as for the boiling water detector, ouch its hot, works for me.
yeah, to be honest I don't have an aweful lot that is accessible in the way of appliances and on't require any new ones. I have a talking microwave, I have braille on the washing machine and drier, talking kitchen and bathroom scales. not really sure about much else.
Cool. *smile* But to the last poster, if you could choose (and assuming you would have the money for it), what would your house have as far as that? Or would it stay the same.? *just curious, smile*
it would stay the same, what more could I want?
I have a stove that has a completely flat top. Its glass and extremely easy to clean, but the burners are just round circles that are drawn on the stove. I like the idea of the flat stove, but I want a device or some way of knowing exactly where the burners start. I'm sure some of you are saying, just put the pot in the same place, but its not that simple. This thing has inner and outer burners and it gets complicated with different sizes of pans. Trust me, its not as simple as it sounds. As I say, I love it, but want it to be a bit more accessible.
I'd like a talking microwave. I'd also like a talking thermostat. I'd get Whirlpool appliances because the company provides Braille labels for all their appliances. I'd also like one of those new Kurzweil small readers. That's all I can think of for now.
I don't care about these things.
The only thing I think I want right now that'd really be helpful is a talking body themometor
I don't need much in the way of accessable technology, although a talking microwave and possibly a talking DVD player or VCR might be nice. I don't have much accessable technology in my house, a Braille scale, a talking thermometer, talking clocks, and adaptive computer related technology, but that's about it. I would love to get our house energy assessed though and put in all energy star appliances, also I'd love a hot tub and perhaps one of those cool in shower phones or in shower radios.
well, i've got a computer, talking clocks and a talking mobile phone, the washing machine has bump ons so i can use that independently, yay, whenever my mum lets me do it. i'd also have a talking microwave, a talking video remote control, and, one of those small scanner readers if i had the money.
As for me, I actually don't think I'd need a stove, but I would instead have several smaller appliences such as a George Forman grill, a toaster oven, an electric skillet, and a microwave. And for cutting, I'd have a manual chopper and one of those slotted slicing guides to use with a short knife. (I hate knives since I actually ended up cutting myself with, of all things, a knife with a built-in slicing guide. *slightly smiles*; it's funny now that I think about it, but I'm scared to do that again.) Anyway, I would have other utensils and containers in my kitchen as well of course. Other accessible things I'd have are my computer with scanner, an Index Braille embosser, my cell phone, and my color detector. I'd also add a talking scale and a talking thermometer, one of those intercom things so you can hear whose outside the door (as well as a motion sensor light), a Kurzweil-NFB reader (for when I'm away from home), my BrailleNote (plus the GPS feature), my Brailler and various slates and styluses, a fully accessable talking universal remote (if they come out with one), a combination VCR/DVD player, my TV, and all the current furniture I have (which is actually not much anyway *smile*). Also, I'd buy/use environmentally friendly/homemade solutions for cleaning/hygene, would use at least some other environmentally-friendly products, and would want to try homemade meals for my pets.
I'd also still collect puzzles and other materials/tools/equipment I could use in my special education job, but actually, I also like looking at them myself anyway. *smile*, and for decorating, I'd buy or make all tactile pictures (not including family ones of course, although I could maybe buy and use that Tactile Image Enhancer machine and copy the pictures and then have a Brailled discription of who the pictures are of and what those people would look like, or just have a discription anyway without the tactile pictures, hanging anyway. I'd probably still make them just to keep for myself personally while the regulars are hung up).
Honey, you are, and forgive me for saying this, way too fucking blind. First of all, you need a stove. If you want to cook nice meals quickly you will need one. If you're going to be a special education teacher you should be able to use a stove for Christ's sake. I don't care if it's gass or electric, but you should be able to use one. I'm totally blind and I use both electric and gass stoves on a regular basis, cooking in my own kitchen as well as in the homes of friends or using the kitchen in our dorm. I guess I do have some more adavted things in my house, but I don't really count them: a tactal indecator on the washing machine, although you can just memorize the cycles and count the clicks, I do that on our unmarked dryer,braille lables that I made up on the braille writer for the microwave, although most of them have fallen off, and not bothering to replace them I have memorized the location of all of the buttons and can gently feel the surface for the slight indentations where the buttons are. Oh, yes, that was it, the business about all tactal pictures. You do realize that sighted people will want something to look at. You may have sighted children, do you want them to be visually deprived, and how about a room mate, a boyfriend, or husband, they won't want to live in a barron waste land devoid of nice images. Also you can have an artistic friend describe art to you and pick out things that will express your personality. If you want art that you can feel, purchase three dementional sculptures, figurines and two dementional etchings and embroidered tapistries, but don't limit your self like that. I have posters up all over my dorm room that are perfectly flat ans smooth, but I know what they are of, and both my sighted friends and I appreciate them. I have one with a large orange and black striped tiger swimming in water painted so that you can see it's body above the water, some of it's body beneath the water slightly distorted, and also it's reflected body above water on the surface of the water next to it in a slightly lighter fainter impression. Other posters also, three tiger cubs, two dolphins jumping out of water with the sun shining on it, a rearing black hourse on a beach, a palamino standing on a black background, a lot like a figure study, a mountain sceen with turbulint water in the fore front, then rocky beaches and sharp cliffs, and forest behind that, with mountains in the back ground. And a few new posters in the top of my closet which I have yet to put up.
wow. I don't have an accessible house. My husband and I are both totally blind. The only things that talk in this house are our computers and a talking thermometer for when I was sick alot and a talking bathroom scale. Everything else is just like the sighties would have it. Nothing is even braille. As for the person that have the flat surface stove, piece of cake. I have one and absolutely love it! I went to my parents house and hated their stove because I just got so used to mine. All you do is turn the burner on, put your hand in the air, not on the surface, and just feel where the heat is coming from and put the pan down over it. You won't burn yourself as long as you dont' touch the surface directly. Never fails. As for the boiling detector...if you can not hear the water when it boils...you got a problem. Especially when it really starts boiling, it's pretty damn loud. Brailling everything and having so many gagits that talk in your house is pointless because it can be done without all that junk, maybe not as easy but who said life was easy anyway. Oh yeah...we do have a talking clock.
I really don't think it's fair to judge people and make them feel like there is something wrong with them if they use adaptive aids. If you like talking products or Braille or other types of labels and other adaptive devices and can afford them, then I say go for it.
i agree becky, that post was actually quite nasty, you live how you want too, not how others judge you, and you shouldn't be judged for that very reason. george forman grills are highly recommended by me, i have one, and yes, can memorise all the buttons and functions.
It's all right if you need some adaptive tech, I just see a lot of people who get bogged down buying every last gagit that comes out on the market. It's much like some sighted people that think they need every last thing autamated and electronic. I don't object to the use of adaptive aids, but when people let their blindness limit their decorating, home planning or over-all life style it bothers me. One should take pride in them self and their home as it apeals to sighted people and their blind peers as well. If I went deaf I would keep up a small CD collection so that I could play background music or mood music for guests, and as a blind person I use a lot of color and art to make my home more pleasant for sighted friends and family. Just think about it, when you have a cold and you can't smell a thing, do you stop using deoderant and perfume, because you can no longer smell your self? If you don't care for a particular dish, but you are asked to prepare it for a dinner party, do you do a half assed job cooking that part of the meal? Just think about it.
Way to go, Holly Bear. You have your head on strait.
To Posters 18 and 19, thanks guys.
to the poster of Post 16, just because I would not want a stove in my home and I get more meaning out of a tactile picture than if it is described to me doesn't make you better than me, and of course I don't feel better than anyone else for how I do things either. Had to point that out because that's how it made me feel reading that certain post. It's a personal preference. It doesn take a genius (no offense to anyone who prefers it) to turn a few knobs on a stove to cook something, therefore, I can still teach others how to use a stove even without owning one myself. I also know how to use one because I do occasionally use it at my parent's house where I live since I don't have the money to get my own place. (I choose not to use it much but I have learned how to use one.) With the tactile pictures, as I mentioned, I personally don't get anything out of described pictures. Yes I'm able to picture them when they're being described to me, but I'm not good with remembering too many details about something described, and I don't feel I should have to be like everyone else and have regular pictures that I can hardly appreciate for myself in my own home. Also my pictures would obviously have color, so they could also be appreciated by sighted people. At the moment I'm not with anyone and don't have children, but when I ever do get to that point, I will have and use a stove, and my family will know that it is not wrong to be a little different from everyone else. If others have a problem with that, that's their thing, but I'm going to want to live in a place that I feel I can appreciate because I have access to it, not have or do things just to try to look "normal." Many of us are so much wanting to show sighted people that we can have and do things like everyone else, and that is fine, but I think that if I can get out of the house on my own (even if it's to the same places), talk to others (even if I usually have a hard time making casual conversation in person), and that I can do anything for myself, is fine for me and of course I can still learn to improve on all of that. But the fact is that I personally would love to feel as independent as possible in my own home and to be able to "look" at pictures whenever I want to.
To the poster of Post 17, thanks for that info about flat stoves. I know it should be common sense *smile*, but I was also thinking how a blind person would use one. Also, maybe I just haven't gotten used to it, but, I honestly cannot tell when water starts boiling. It's usually not quiet around there, and yeah. But anyway, the boiler indicator thing wasn't at all expensive anyway.
In response to Post 20, that's cool that you feel like that. I don't think I would need every piece of technology either and never said I would. Some things I think would be a waste of money for me, while I think I should have other thing so that I can do things independently as I should be able to. Although I feel like it is not wrong to rely on other/ask for assistance when I need it, there are some points where I feel like I shouldn't have to. I'm sure others who use or want certain pieces of adaptive technology feel the same way. Also, just because I would have things more suitable toward a blind person doesn't mean that I'm limiting myself in my opinion. The decorations would still be in color and would be meaningful, and the gadgets would mean I wouldn't have to ask others to do things I feel like I should be able to do totally for myself because that technology made it possible. It is different from just having things for convenience because to me that is having something and knowing that you are fully able to do it but just choose not to. That would be like having your house automated or even just having a dishwasher when you are able to get up and do those things yourself. I know some might feel like they need everything or things that others might think is a waste of money, but if that makes them feel more independent and they feel better having it then that's cool to me. As for people who just want convenience, like the poster who mentioned he would have his house automated or something, that just wouldn't be for me since I like moving around and having something to do, but I'm not going to judge him or anyone else who would want to live like that. Also, to answere your example on lack of smell or hearing and still having things that appeal to those who don't have those problems, of course I would. I already have CD's and a radio, so if I ever went deaf, I would keep what I had, and if I ever lost smell, I would still wear deodorant and other scented products. but say if I lost my hearing, I would definitely have things that I would be able to use: blinking (or in my case Braille or vibrating) products. Yes I'd care that what I had looks nice to others, but more importantly (to me) I'd care that I felt freely able to enjoy "lloking" at things and doing things independently at home where I know it's not like that everywhere else because that can't or won't always be taken into consideration.
I wasn't judging anyone. I just was saying that stuff can be done with out all the gadgits. It's not as easy, but it can still be done. That's all I was saying. and the boiling water thing, I know what you mean. For some odd reason different stoves and different pans sound funky. I went to my mom's house and was making something and her pan sounded like it was boiling and it wasn't and then when it was boiling there was just a little tiny hiss, not the bubbles like things do when they boil at my house on my stove and my pans. I don't know if it is the kind of pan she had or what but I can see how that would confuse people and they would need a boil indicator thing.
Oh no problem. *smile* I didn't mean to direct the comments about judging people at you, as I didn't feel like you had done that. Yeah, I think it's the stove we have, and so you can hear the water a little bit but it has to be pretty quiet. I actually like gas stoves thought since you can hear that clicking sound when it comes on and stuff, but ours is an electric one. It's pretty cool though because you just learn the positions of the knobs and then you don't really even need to label it, except for maybe the oven knobs, but yeah. My other comments were directed at the indicated posts. I'm cool with y'all actually, just responding to what had been said. *smile*
I like the tactile markings they put on the washing machines and on the cookers here at the college. I wouldn't have a tumble drier anyway, but I do have a boil alert disk, tactiletimer and braille dymo. I also use jaws on my laptop when it's working and I did hae a couple of pcs games on there. I would like a scanner or something to read print with to save having to get a sighted person to read it to me. I might also be getting a talking color detector soon, because I can't see colors of things, so will help with sorting out my washing.
Hmmm! I have most of these things at home already. My poor mother's place is slowly but surely, filling up with my labour saving appliances. For example, I have a very nice Foreman grill, that has detachable plates so you can take them right off and wash them before they clip neatly on to the elements again with the aid of four springloaded clasps, it clicks when it's ready for you to put whatever you're cooking inside, it works exactly like a sandwich press, which we also have, propping up the microwaves cupboard next to the grill, mum has her own sighted Panasonnic microwave which has cooked countless baked potatoes over the 14 years we've had the thing, then there's my own talking microwave, which we bought when we had the kitchen completely blitzed and refitted 4 years ago, I have a talking VCR complete with the talking handset, a sighted DVD player, hi-fi and digital piano, but all of these appliances have different-shaped buttons, making them far more simple for me to operate, and which will move with me in to my new flat/small house (not sure about the digital piano though. That may have to wait till I'm married and me and my partner/husband could aford a bigger place with more space for it.) Other than these things I already have though, I get along fairly well with everyday kitchen accessories, cleaning accessories Etc, so just all the things we bought for me, personally, would move to the new house with me, along with my trampette, chair bed, talking digital radio, and other easy/accessible items in my ever-expanding living quarters, lollol. I have bump-ons, tactimark paint and Dymo tape plus dymo gun to mark up a new flat topped cooker and washing machine, so I'm all set. I just need a house to move in to and enough money to buy it.
Jen.
I also have a braille dymo with dymo tape inside it and a perkins brailler which I've just had fixed. I've just bought a braille frame and note pad to write notes and rubbish with, a pocket calendar for next year, one of the azebit computer games disks and also a braille indexed address book to write down all the phone numbers and addresses in. I did have an indexed address book, but I brailled all over the cards with the letters on when I was younger, instead of brailing on the pieces of paper.
I would say equipment such as kitchen wear like scales, things, also labeling but thats just me, hope this helps.
For me, I'd just need a flat-topped stove with some of the buttons on the touch screen labeled in Braille, (and here, just the ones I'd use, not the timer and all that), a phone that has talking caller Id, a scale, and two diferent types of thermometers: one that tells you the indoor and outdoor temperature, and a clinical thermometer to take one's temperature. Obviously, my computer, scanner, and other adaptive technology I'll be receiving in the next month or so, as I'm going to start college this spring. I'd also like some family photos in frames and some figurines around the house. Only the bedroom would have Harry Potter posters on the wallls. I'm fine with the use of a VCR for described videos, once someone shows me where the buttons are on it and the remote.
Wow! What a descussion!
Ok, let me divide this up...
Things I already have:
cctv, magnetic labeling tape, screen reader on laptop and desktop, braille labels on cd/dvds, a lock-drain pot, hand held magnifiers, the douney balls, some bumps on my washer, and... I'm probably forgetting some items.
What would be fun to have:
scanner, braille printer, tv on-screen menus spoken, more lock-drain pots, voice sense w/gps, portable cctv, large digital picture frame, and way more, but I'm drawing a blank. lol!
Hi, I've lived on my own for going on three years. I'm not totally blind so some things like a color detector I wouldn't always need. I too have tried to make my apartment inviting for guests/family. I believe one should be proud of thier house no matter what type of home it is. I don't label my cd's. I just alphabetize hem and can tell by opening by the look of the cd or feel of the case which one it is. I do like pictures/sculptures, but have a somewhat minimalist attitude towards decorating. I believe there is such a thing as overaccessorizing your house. Also, nothing sets a mood of ambience like good music and candles. I don't really have many problems lighting them and candlelight is always so warm and inviting. I especially like scented candles.