Cork FB Exhange Club meeting minutes 02/03/2024
Welcome to the FB Exchange happening on the second day of spring. Adrian
will be the note-taker for today's session. We had a total of 12
participants, and we've also received apologies for the absence.
We extend a warm welcome to Garth, who joined our club today. The
meeting commenced with each member providing a brief introduction.
Hey, hey, hey! It's party time, folks! Let's give a big shoutout to Paul
and Martin because it's their birthday! And guess what? The group got
all creative and cooked up some special tunes just for this occasion to
groove and celebrate in style!
Alright, folks, time to dive into the tech side of things! Jackie kicks
us off with an update on her ongoing battle with the myVI skill for Lady
A devices. Despite the efforts of the V I Labs team, she's still not
able to use it. Martin is in the same boat! Cue the discussions
comparing iPhones and Androids, where Dominique dropped a mention of the
V I Tech Podcast. For those who didn't know about it, check it out here:
https://vi.ie/category/videos-podcasts/ Catch it live every second
Tuesday on Teams (link sent via newsletter if subscribed) or on V I
Live.
Pat mentioned that he discovered a workaround for his issue with reading
articles on TheJournal app. He found that simply restarting VoiceOver a
few seconds after the article loads resolves the problem. Adrian
suggests that VoiceOver might start reading before the entire article is
fully loaded, capturing only a portion of it. Restarting ensures that
the page is fully loaded before VoiceOver takes control.
Garth is looking to change the voice of NVDA. Cearbhall said that's
possible and he must look into settings. He also mentioned that
Eloquence is not available anymore due to its licensing.
Adrian is facing major frustration with the ticket master's system,
which doesn't allow normal seats to be purchased with a companion, as
other merchants offer. No clear reason was given so far. But he was told
he must purchase two normal tickets to accommodate the companion. Like,
if he is disabled it's a tough life and he must pay twice... Others had
stories where disability means you must be in a wheelchair.
Next, Ger told us a funny story in which he found that instead of typing
a single 7, he put 3 of 7. It's funny unless this didn't happen in his
baking app doing a payment. Luckily someone sighted was around to help
him catch the error.
Chris asked if anyone else is having issues with face recognition
lately. No one reported any and he was given solutions to try to fix it.
Cearbhall mentioned the concerns around the new plans to make travel
easier
for cyclists. All of the above approaches seem to remove kerbs and walls
and
create wide open areas with no sense of direction or clear path to
follow
for long cane or guide dog users. The new developments also try to
restrict
cars. For further details, check the email from Paul, attached to these
minutes.
Adrian told the group he was surprised to find out last week that gaming
is possible for people with vision impairment. Stuart said there is also
an entire site dedicated to this: audiogames.net [1]
Another cool review of a full race simulator is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNoug_IxwqM
Jackie approached Cearbhall with a technical question related to braille
and braille devices, of which the note-taker is about as knowledgeable
on the topic as a goldfish at a chess tournament.
Martin mentioned Echo Pop which he finds very attractive:
https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-sound-compact-speaker-Lavender/dp/B09ZXJDSL5
Adrian and Jackie find very good a certain pair of earbuds that are on
discount on Amazon. At the moment of writing these minutes, the price is
26 euros: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C8TSJX9Z
The meeting ended.
PS: thank you all in advance, I know you enjoy the notes as they are
anyway, and want to save our inboxes!!
Regards,
The note-taker
Links:
------
[1] https://www.audiogames.net/list-games/
--- Begin Message ---Hi all,
- From: <ronan.p.mcguirk@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <irelandvipnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2024 13:35:30 -0000
I am calling out particularly to blind and partially sighted people in Dún
Laoghaire and in Limerick city.
Some alarming news, some hope and a way forward.
I live in the Dún Laoghaire area. Dún Laoghaire Rathdown is one of the 4
Dublin Local Authority areas. It used to be quite easy to walk around the
Dún Laoghaire area with a long cane or guide dog. Most roads or streets had
a footpath on either side. The footpath had a wall or line of buildings on
one side and a kerb on the other side. It used to be fairly easy to follow a
route to my destination.
There are now a lot of new street developments in the town. These new
features are being built with increasing speed.
The list of new design and planning initiatives includes:
* Living Streets
* Active Travel
* Open Plaza
* Shared Space
* Table Junction
* Continuous Pavement/Raised Crossing
* Bus Island
The motivation behind all these designs seems to be to make travel easier
for cyclists. All of the above approaches seem to remove kerbs and walls and
create wide open areas with no sense of direction or clear path to follow
for long cane or guide dog users. The new developments also try to restrict
cars.
I used to assume that somewhere in the planning process, the needs and
rights of blind and partially sighted people were being considered. I
finally came to realise that I was wrong and that our needs or rights didnt
feature at all in the new designs. There is now a rapidly increasing set of
areas in my local town that I can no longer navigate independently.
Some small examples: In one case, at the junction of Park Road and the
Queens Road, I now encounter an open plaza followed by a table junction. I
dont find it possible to know if I am walking on the Open Plaza, on the
table junction, on Park Road, on the Queens Road or on the Metals pathway.
This is because the whole area is flat with no kerb or walls, or camber that
I can detect.
In another case, the council have put a continuous pavement across the mouth
of a side road. As I walk along Upper Glenageary Road on the pavement, I am
unsure if I am on the pavement, on the raised crossing, if I am on the
roadway on the side road or on the roadway on the main road or if I have
made it across the junction to the pavement on the other side of the side
road.
The Active Travel Unit in the County Council say that it is their intention
to put continuous pavements like this across all side roads.
I understand that the plans for Bus Connex are to put the terminus in the
middle of a Shared Space. This shared space and open plaza may well also
enclose Dún Laoghaire train station. This will mean that I will need
sighted assistance to get to the bus terminus. The bus route then goes to a
hub at Cornelscourt, which is planned to be on a Bus Island. This will be a
flat concrete area with no kerb, in the middle of a road or shared space.
You will need to get off the bus and make your way to another stop on the
other side of the Bus Island in order to travel to the city centre. As the
island is flat with no kerb, it will be difficult, dangerous or impossible
to find the direction to the other stop or to know if you are on the island
or on the road. It seems that sighted assistance will be essential.
The council intends to change all junctions so it is probable that in the
coming months or year or two, I will not be able to travel independently. I
was beginning to think of having to use taxis all the time. However, it
seems that this may not be a solution either, because the plans are to
remove cars from the town so that the taxi will have to let me off say
500metres from my destination which could be at the other side of an open
plaza or a shared space.
I understand that Limerick city is also beginning to suffer from this type
of planning which will exclude blind people from independent travel.
I realise that blind and partially sighted people who live in rural areas
cant walk safely on many rural roads. It seems that this will become the
situation in our towns and cities also if nothing is done.
It doesnt have to be this way. It would obviously be possible to design a
plaza that had a pedestrian path through or around it. Such a path could be
bounded on either side by any combination of the following wall, kerb, grass
verge, flower bed, hedge, fence, strip of cobble stones, gravel bed,
etc.etc. This is not being done today because no account is being taken of
the needs of blind and partially sighted pedestrians in the planning
process.
There is some hope, however.
In 2018 Ireland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (CRPD). The Irish Government through the Department of Children
Equality, Disability Integration and Youth, is now slowly beginning to
consider the implications of the CRPD.
The CRPD requires Government bodies to prioritise the rights of people with
disabilities as expressed through their representative organisations. It
further specifies that service providers are not representative
organisations.
If you live in a town or city other than Limerick or Dún Laoghaire and you
hear of any of the design techniques listed above, dont make the same
mistake that I did and assume that the needs and rights of visually impaired
people are being taken into account in the planning. There was no such
consideration in Dún Laoghaire.
What can we do? I have joined Voice of Vision Impairment. See website at the
following link: Voice of Vision Impairment (vvi.ie) <https://vvi.ie/>
Voice of Vision Impairment is a Disabled Persons Representative Organisation
that is in compliance with the CRPD.
You can join as an ordinary member, or you can choose to become a rep.
I think it is particularly urgent for people in the Dún Laoghaire or in the
Limerick City areas to begin asserting our rights. I am alarmed at the
pace of change that is causing exclusion. You can email info@xxxxxx
<mailto:info@xxxxxx> to join or for further details.
Maybe together we can stop the exclusion and change things for the better.
Ronan
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