Blind Techie

I was planning to go to San Diego to visit a friend who had to fly in for the day to teach a class, and spend some time with him.  However, a couple of days ago, I had a friend from work as me if I would take his girlfriend to Winslow for an appointment today, so i agreed.

We left 20 minutes late, which was no big deal.  We had planned some buffer time.  We got up the mountain pretty good, with some 18-wheelers passing, but I was not in a rush.  Once we got out on th eopen road, we moved along at a very good pace.  We got to Winslow with plenty of time to spare.  Once she was done with her appointment, we headed back home.  we stopped in Flagstaff for gas, and a meal break.  As we headed back down the mountain, we started to get the sun in ours, but as the mountain curves in and out it was not bad.  I did get a little scared coming down, because the big rigs where trying to fly down, and coming down with out riding the brakes was a new experience for me. 

Over all it was a great trip.  For me to do that on a bus or other means, it would have been 8 hours or more one way.  What a great time to have the freedom to go anywhere, whenever I please.   I would have driven to San Diego, but I was exhausted for my first road trip.  Sorry Dude.  Next Time.

Let me tell you this was not the best experience in a MVD I would say that has been had by any one.  One thing came another, that day came and no license nor car (Will not go into major details, but we had to reschedule).  Well the day finally arrived.  July 12, 2006 is a day I will never forget.  It started out partly cloudy, with possible rain.  I went to work a little early, and left around 11 when Jenny told me she was on her way.  I met her at 35th Ave and McDowell Road from the bus stop.  We drove down to the MVD down is Mesa.  We ended up down there early, so I drove around with Jenny beside me till it was time.  Thanks to the Mesa office MVD manager for getting us through the line and process, because he knew how much trouble we had the last time I was in the office. Within an hour of being the office, I was now a licensed driver.  YAHOOH!

Now comes to getting my car from Jenny.  That was such a breeze to get through the paperwork.  I am now a proud driver with my first car, a 2000 Buick Century.  Even doing the insurance with nationwide was a snap.  The whole process was long and tedious with some bumps in the road.  However I want to thank Dr Noon for all of her hard work in getting the law changed to make Arizona the 39th state to allow bioptic drivers.  Then I would like to thank the staff of View Finder Low Vision of the Mesa office, including Jan.  Next I would like to thank Jenny from Driving to Independence for her help in getting the scheduled times in and helping me get my first car.  For the office manager for the Mesa MVD (once I have his name, I will update this blog), thanks for helping us smooth the bumps in the road with MVD.  I know I am missing some folks, but thanks to each and every one that had a part no matter how small it was to help me get this far.  Independence is GREAT!

PS.  Be on the look out for a video being made about Bioptic Driving.

LINKS:

http://www.viewfinderlowvision.com/

http://www.drivingtoindependence.com/

At these appointments went along I got more confident in my driving skills, as we grew the different tasks to try and drive.  For example, Jenny had me drive through neighborhoods with a lot of stops signs.  Then we graduated up to stoplights. Then right hand turns, then left hand turns.  We worked on going through different speed zones from school zones to major roads with speeds of up to 45 mph.  Then we did a couple lessons where I drove the access road to the freeway, and around a mall.  We then went on to the freeways around her office.  Final 2 lessons included me driving in my own area so I can get comfortable with my own roads, and even taking the freeway to and from the office.  Let me tell you the second go at the freeway gave me a scare that forced me not to want to take the freeway for over a month.  I was coming up on the access freeway road and I had a very long line of 18-wheelers in the merge lane that did not appear to give me room to get in, so I just went back off the freeway, and tried one more time, and was able to get home. 

During this time of lessons, I found out Jenny was going to sell her 2000 Buick Century.  I had mentioned to her I was looking for a car.  Things worked out that I was able to purchase that car from her.  What another blessing.  So finally Jenny gave me the green light to go to get my license.  Since, I had no friends at the time that would let me use their car to take the road test for my license with.  I had talked to Jenny about making some kind of arrangements to use one of her cars.  We had made an appointment time to go and do this.

Continuation of previous post

I went back in to Dr Noon’s office for one final eye exam.  They needed another machine, which finally came in.  I passed that exam.  So now on to the next step.  I had to work on some exercises with my bioptic lenses with Jan from Dr Noon’s office.  Jan is an Occupational Therapist.  Over the next 2 months, I worked on these exercises with Jan from the office and through email.  My last appointment with Jan was on March 10th.  At this appointment, she said I was ready for the next step.  She went to Dr Noon, had her sign off on my progress, and gave me the green light to get my Learner’s permit.  Later that day, I went to the DMV office and applied for my permit, and let me tell you, it was not an easy process, because of the staff at the office, where not sure of the process still, and did not think I was eligible to get my permit.  After talking to the manager and she went and talked to someone else.  They finally issued me my permit.  Yahooh!

Therefore, after that, I was referred by View Finder Low Vision to take driving lessons with Jenny from Driving to Independence.  I called her that afternoon and started the process of getting in to see her and to get the lessons underway.  I was able to get into her office a few weeks later, and we started this segment.  I had a sit down appointment with Jenny, and later in that appointment we did a few exercises in the car where she wanted me to find things on the roadway as a passenger, and since that went really well, she allowed me to do a little driving to see how well I could handle the car, and the instructions.  I feel I did well.  We set up appointments as often as I could and she had open spots.  We did this for the next 2 months.  I got a chance to drive the 2000 Buick Century, and she had just bought a 2006 Kia, which I was able to drive.  As we were doing the lessons, I was going in to work afterwards, which took an additional 2 hours or so to get there from her office, by bus.  I wanna thank my Managers and TL’s for being understanding in adjusting my schedule for this period.

Thankfulness  What does that word mean to you?

To me, it means to be thankful for what I have.  I know sometimes it is not much, but right now, I am very thankful.  You are wondering what I am talking about.  Well for past 34 years, I knew I would not drive a car in my life.  However, that all changed mid December 2005, thanks to Dr. Lynn Noon of View Finder Low Vision Centers in the Valley of Sun.  I got a newsletter from her office saying that in January of 2006, the state of Arizona would be changing the requirements for a driver’s license.  I got excited about the prospects of this information.  So a day or two later I called her office to make an appointment to find out what I needed to do to get my license.

The day of the appointment arrived, and that day was January 6, 2006.  Dr Noon did an eye exam, reevaluated my bioptic lenses and my results of the exam, and told me I would be a good candidate.  She then said to give her a call back on the 10th of January to find out what the exact law said.  I gave it an extra day or two.  Some days later, I was told the process, and remind you this was all still new to the DMV office, and her office had to plan all of the steps for this process, and of course, I was willing to wait as long as needed, since I had already waited 34 years.

This is part of 1 of this series, hang tight, there is a reason for this set of posts

 

This link was attached to my post on GroundSpeak, which is geocaching.com’s forum site.  You have got to check it out.  It is a video of 3 different types of talking GPS for the car, running at the same time in the same car.   

`Reminds me that we need to laugh at things sometimes, and not to take things so seriously.‘

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_isVdeRwnus

I have gotten into Geocaching once or twice by a good friend, so I thought what a great idea to review GPS units not just for geocaching, but also for the car.  So Saturday, I posted in the forums of geocaching.com the following post: 

I am a visually impaired geocacher. In the past I have borrowed a friends GPS for the few times I have gone out(thanks whooven). Now I am in a position to start using my own for not just geocaching, but for road travels also. I am looking at doing a review of GPS units from large to small for those with less than perfect eye sight. I am looking for fellow geocachers who are willing to loan me there GPS units to do these tests on. I will post my reviews on my blog that I am starting, and if you loan me yours, I will gladly mention you and thank you for the loan on my site, if you so desire mentioning.

If you are interested, please feel free to email me at “rescu77 (at) blindtechie.com”.

Finally, if you have a talking GPS unit, I can test those for the road travels, and for those who are blind, and give my reviews. Thanks

And I have already had one response.  That is awesome.  I will keep you posted on my travels and tribulations of this test phase. 

For the average American person this problem I am about to talk about is not noticed, but for the rest of the Americans, it is a problem.  The size of print on anything from a menu at a nice sit down restraunt, to take out, movie theater, and the list goes on  and on and on.  My request to anybody that owns or manages a business, please, PLEASE, consider the size of fonts you use, and the types of fonts, and even as far as the colours you decided to use.  Let me give you a good example, there is a fast food restraunt that I frequent from work everday for lunch, that sells subs.  I have gotten to the point, I do not even look at the signs, I get the same old thing every single day, because of the placement of the menus high up on the walls, and the size of print used.

All I asked is that nezt time you go into a business, look at what you have to read, and imagine that you cannot read that size of print.  How frustrated would you be?  I am not saying all places are like this, but a majority are.  If you are a business owner, and are conserned that you are not meeting the needs of your customer, please feel free to contact me, and I will be glad to assist you in this matter.

I am done bitching about this today.

You may wonder why I choose the URl http://www.blindtechie.com/. That is a good question. I am visually impaired, and I am a computer junkie, also I work as a Helpdesk analyst. I want to give you my perspective on my life and play as a visually impaired person. I am 34. I grew up in Lower Slower Delaware. Read more in the ABOUT section for more details of my life. Stay tuned to this blog for more details. I plan of telling you about websites I find that help me. Hardware review for the visually impaired. Details on my getting a drivers license, and the follies related to that. And just my life in general.