As a pre Covid blind user of technology, I must admit that my focus would
almost exclusively have been concerned with matters professional, educational
and informational.
Since the pandemic struck me however I have experienced something of a sol like
conversion on my metaphorical road to Damascus.
My first brush with good fortune was when a friend of mine who works in an
electrical wholesaler told me of a Bluetooth Bose speaker normally retailing at
â¬400 but was on sale for â¬200, so I took lady luck by the hand and made a
purchase.
I then downloaded the Spotify app to my iPhone and subscribed. Now I come from
a generation who would have spent a lot of my early teenage years armed with an
old tape recorder next to a radio trying to record the latest songs. Just
imagine if you will, the luxury of being able to choose or even command a song
or album at will. Anyone under 40 years of age will have no idea!
Then in the early months of the crisis I subscribed to Netflix. Now I am a
person who has listened neutrally if not uninterestedly to people ranting on
about TV and the latest cinema releases and while I did not feel excluded, I
certainly did not feel involved in such conversations. Now with audio
description enabled in iOS accessibility I soon became a bore when
pontificating and analyzing the most recent box sets or an old comedy classic.
Such joy when I also realized that some classic films such as Scarface, the
godfather, and gladiators ETC were now available with audio description.
While I have always been an avid audible book reader, the audible app just
became another component in my self-designed all-inclusive home entertainment
system.
Now obviously as a blind user my experience was very much completed by the fact
that all these apps with practice are quite accessible with VoiceOver and
Spotify could just as easily have been Apple Music or Amazon Music. Just as my
choice of Netflix could have been swapped for Disney Plus while audible could
have been changed for Kindle etc.
Spotify and my speaker gave me an almost surround sound home experience while
the speaker and Netflix brought me to the cinema each evening and audible was
like having a regular night in with my favourite authors. My cupboards were
always complete with popcorn and no ushers were allowed enter the house.
Again, imagine my excitement when I tide Spotify, audible and Netflix to my
smart speaker accounts for Alexa and Ok Google which now gave me total speech
command over my newfound instruments of domestic bliss. I was truly master of
my own dominion!
Where pre pandemic I was rarely at home, highly social and extremely energetic.
Now post pandemic I am overweight, in danger of becoming a lazy person and the
real risk is that I am loving it.
If anything happens to me, they will all say it was the technology that killed
him.â
Taken from NCBI LABS TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER.
===========================================================
The fb-exchange mailing list
Manage account,
List Page: https://www.freelists.org/list/fb-exchange
Subscribe: mailto:fb-exchange-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe
Unsubscribe: mailto:fb-exchange-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=unsubscribe
Archive: https://www.freelists.org/archive/fb-exchange
Administrative contact: insight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
===========================================================
