Tag Archives: disability

Tales of the Unexpected

Leave a reply

I have for so long as I can remember enjoyed stories with unexpected endings. As a child growing up in Liverpool I watched ITV’s Tales of the Unexpected (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_the_Unexpected_%28TV_series%29). Each episode featured a different tale all of which ended unexpectedly.

Tales of the Unexpected was in the back of my mind when I wrote Sting in the Tail (http://newauthoronline.com/2013/03/16/sting-in-the-tail/). In the story a highly educated and charming fraudster meets his match in the most unexpected manner in the form of a blind girl, Laura. The fraudster makes the fatal mistake of perceiving Laura as a poor disabled woman who poses no threat, indeed he determines not to defraud her as stealing from a blind woman is a step to far even for a hard bitten criminal such as him. The fraudster’s fatal mistake is to assume that disability equals intellectual inferiority rendering Laura a helpless victim who he, in a rare moment of conscience determines not to exploit.

Sting in the Tail is above all a story who’s aim as with all stories is to provide enjoyment to the reader, however, as a registered blind person I am also interested to explore how people can, quite erroneously conflate disability with what used to be known as feeble mindedness. As the fraudster finds to his chagrin in Sting in the Tail this is a costly error!

Oops I Shouldn’t Have Said That!

2 Replies

As a child I lost my vision and am now registered blind. This was as a consequence of a blood clot on the brain. Being disabled I was shocked and angered to read about Colin Brewer, a councillor on Cornwall County Council who stated that “disabled children should be put down” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285773/Collin-Brewer-resigns-saying-Disabled-children-cost-down.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490). Mr Brewer made the remarks to a representative of a charity for disabled children back in 2011. The lady to whom the remarks where addressed naturally complained to the Council and over 18 months later received an apology from Mr Brewer apologising for his remarks and stating that the remarks where not, in fact his views. His explanation (excuse) is that he had just come out of a heated council meeting during which the significant costs of supporting children with disabilities had been discussed and he was “still hot under the collar” following the discussions. Seeing the charity workker he gave vent to his anger which he now says was wrong. Not surprisingly Mr Brewer has now resigned although he is, apparently considering standing in May’s local elections. Good luck Mr Brewer, you will need it as the vast majority of decent ordinary people will, I’m sure vote for candidates other than yourself!

We all at times get angry and say things which we don’t mean and later bitterly regret having said, however the remarks of Mr Brewer are not in this category. In Nazi Germany disabled people (both children and adults) where exterminated by the authorities on the direct order of Adolf Hitler. The so-called T-4 Programme was carried out in secret, however news of it’s existence leaked out and (not surprisingly) even in Nazi Germany public revulsion was voiced by brave churchmen and other members of the community which lead to the Programme’s official suspension but it’s continued operation at an unofficial level. The Programme saw experimentation with the gassing of people with disabilities, a method later utilised by the Nazis in the Final Solution (the attempted extermination of European Jewery).

Mr Brewer’s belief that children who are disabled should be “put down” was put into horrific practice in Nazi Germany and this is why it is right that he has resigned. One does (as I said above) say things which are not meant during the heat of the moment, however there are certain remarks which no civilised person would make as it would never enter into their head to make them. Murdering disabled children falls into this category!

Cyborg?

Leave a reply

I became blind at 18 months old. My blindness is as a result of a blood clot on the brain (it could have killed me or rendered me severely mentally impaired, however, fortunately the clot only caused the loss of my sight). Although I am registered blind I possess some residual vision. I can see outlines of objects and I put the lights on when it gets dark as light helps me to avoid colliding with objects. As a child I was taught how to use a white cane however, as an adult I rely on my Labrador/retriever cross, Trigger for mobility when travelling outside.

Being blind I was interested to read an article in today’s Daily Mail (9 February) regarding the development of a bionic eye which possesses the potential to enable some visually impaired people to see http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2275981/The-blind-soon-science-soon-market-high-tech-cyborg-eye.html#axzz2KOAWg0Do. The article is worth a read despite the terrible typographical errors! However I am not about to put Trigger out to grass (or whatever one does with retired guide dogs)! The causes of blindness are complex and not all of them are amenable to treatment. For those for whom the bionic eye works it is, obviously a wonderful and liberating invention but for many other visually impaired people this invention is of academic interest only. We will continue to live and enjoy our lives as unenhanced humans, no bionic eyes for us.

(Kevin Morris is a writer. For his collection of short stories, The First Time please visit the Kindle store on amazon.com or amazon.co.uk).

Caught out by Captcha

3 Replies

I am a blind computer user who is not able to read print. As a result I use Jaws (Job Access with Speech) which converts text into print and braille enabling me to have the content of the screen relaid to me. One of the major difficulties which I encounter as a user of access software is the need to solve Captchas prior to being able to post comments on websites or perform other functions such as contacting the webmaster. Captchas are visual puzzles which are rendered as images. Jaws and other screenreading software is not able to interpret images (the software sees a blank page), consequently many visually impaired people such as myself find it extremely difficult (sometimes impossible) to post on sites which utilise Captcha.

Some sites including blogger.com do have audio alternatives to visual Captchas which should, in theory allow access technology users to post in the same manner as non visually impaired people. However I know from bitter experience that many audible alternatives to visual Captchas are virtually unintelligible and that significant numbers of vision impaired people can not post independently as a consequence of the presence of Captcha.

In adition to this site (newauthoronline.com which is hosted at wordpress.com) I have, in the past few days started a blog at blogger.com (http://newauthoronline.blogspot.co.uk/). This presents me with a moral dilemma as Blogger does, as mentioned above employ Captcha, (I face no such ethical issues with wordpress.com as it does not use Captcha. WordPress utilises Akismet software which automatically detects spam without utilising Captcha and places suspected junk comments/messages in a spam folder for the webmaster to review. Akismet is in my experience at least 97 per cent accurate and it is only on rare occasions that I find a genuine comment consigned to my spam folder). I wish that Blogger used Akismet or similar software rather than the cumbersome Captcha which the user is faced with. However given that Blogger does not avail itself of alternatives to Captcha what is the visually impaired user of my Blogger site to do? One solution is for users of Firefox to download an extension called Webvisum. Among other functions Webvisum enables the blind access technology user to solve Captcha by pressing alt, control 6 which sends the Captcha to be resolved. I haven’t a clue how Webvisum performs it’s magic, however it does work in the majority of cases and I’ve successfully solved many Captchas through using Webvisum.

While many tech savvy blind people will be aware of Webvisum other visually impaired people will not. Again some people do not like Firefox and prefer to use Internet Explorer or other browsers. For such people Webvisum is not an option as it only works with Firefox. This being the case what is the solution to my dilemma? The short term solution is to place an email address on http://newauthoronline.blogspot.co.uk/ so that those unable to solve the Captcha have an alternative means of contacting me, however this may have the effect of attracting spam so I will break up the address to reduce the potential for junk mail (For example john smith at mydomain.com). In the longer term sites such as Blogger need to explore alternatives to Captcha. Akismet is not the only option. One can, for instance ask the person wishing to post a comment to solve a simple question such as “what is four plus 2”. I really can’t imagine why Blogger and other sites choose to stick to inaccessible Captcha when there exist much better means of detecting spam while permitting visually impaired people the same access as sighted individuals.

 

(Kevin Morris is the author of The First Time which is available in the Kindle Store).

 

Postscript. Since composing this post earlier today I have come across a number of posts which explain how to turn off Captcha (word verification) in Blogger. For example please see http://britpins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/tutorial-how-to-turn-off-word.html. A number of these postings argue that turning off Captcha does not significantly increase the amount of spam received while several comments in response to the posts state that turning off Captcha has increased the amount of spam received significantly. For the reasons set out above I wish to make commenting on my Blogger site as easy as possible while avoiding so far as is possible the menace of spam. I will (assuming that I can find the relevant settings on my Blogger Dashboard) turn off word verification and monitor the effects over the coming weeks. If spam is not a major problem then all well and good, however if turning off Captcha results in a large number of spam comments I may have to reniable word verification while including a contact me link on my blog so that those who experience difficulty with Captcha can get in touch.

Does he take sugar?

3 Replies

I am registered blind and live alone in London. I frequently shop independently (the shop assistants locate the items I require and I pay using either card or cash). I am, almost always unaccompanied on shopping trips, consequently the interaction is purely between myself and the shop assistant.

I spent the Christmas festivities visiting my mum and her partner in Liverpool. While there I visited a branch of W H Smiths and purchased a book, as a Christmas present for my sister. I paid for the item using my debit card and given that the transaction was between myself and the sales assistant I was surprised when she attempted to hand my receipt to my mum! My mum is non-disabled so I can only assume that the assistant felt more comfortable interacting with a non-disabled rather than a disabled person. The incident was resolved with the assistant handing the receipt to me (my mum refused to take it and I continued to hold out my hand)!

Having experienced similar incidents I’m able to see the funny side and my mum and I laughed about it afterwards. Had I been alone the assistant would have had no alternative other than to hand the receipt to me, however due to the presence of a non-disabled individual she automatically attempted to pass the paperwork to that person rather than the rightful recipient, yours truly!

On the whole attitudes towards people with disabilities have (and continue) to improve in the UK. In 1995 the Disability Discrimination Act came into force outlawing discrimination against people with disabilities in the fields of employment and service provision. The legislation has been strengthened since 1995 and has been superceeded by the Equalities Act. However despite the implementation of legislation and greatly improved social attitudes people with disabilities such as myself continue to encounter misunderstanding and, on occasions prejudice as is exemplified by my experience in purchasing a book in W H Smiths. What is the solution? Greater integration of disabled people into mainstream society is vital. As a child I attended several schools for visually impaired children and it was only on attending university that I entered mainstream education. Today greater numbers of children with disabilities are being educated with their non-disabled peers. The exposure of non-disabled children to those who are disabled is to be welcomed and will assist in enhancing understanding, however the incident in Smiths demonstrates that more education is required.

 

(Kevin Morris is a writer. For his latest book, The First Time” please visit https://newauthoronline.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/the-first-time-by-kevin-morris-availible-at-waterstones-for-only-0-98/).

Reading and the visually impaired

Leave a reply

E-books possess many advantages. Unlike print books one does not need to spend hours browsing around bookshops to find the book of your choice or, alternatively wait for several days for that print book you have ordered online to arrive. With the click of a mouse one can order Oliver Twist and have it delivered to the e-reader of your choice in minutes (often seconds). Again for those with limited space e-books are a godsend as a Kindle or other e-reader can hold a multiplicity of books in a tiny space. One group who have benefited enormously from the growth of e-books are the visually impaired. For centuries those with no vision had to rely on the kindness of family or friends to access the wonderful world of literature. Following the invention of braille a door was opened allowing blind people who mastered it to access books, however the number of titles availible in braille is tiny compared to the vast array of print books availible to sighted individuals. For the blind book lover wanting to read the classics, for example Great Expectations or War and Peace, both titles are availible in braille. However for a long time blind people struggled to keep up with the reading habits of their sighted family and friends as most contemporary literature is not availible in braille due to the costs of producing it. Again braille books take up a great deal of space (the New Oxford Book of English Verse runs to 10 thick braille volumes while it’s print counterpart is a single book).

The Kindle, the I-Pad and the I-Pod all have in-built voices (in the case of the more expensive version of the Kindle this is known as text to speech while Apple’s software is named voiceover). The technology allows people with little or no sight to access e-books opening up a world of literature which was largely closed to them hitherto.

To my knowledge Kindle’s web browser is not easily accessible (if at all) to blind people, however the visually impaired may access Amazon’s website using screenreading software such as Jaws which converts text into speech and braille and purchase titles with ease. Once a title is downloaded to the Kindle it is possible for a blind person to navigate around the menus, select books etc. While it is difficult for blind people to easily skip through the sections of a book using the Kindle, listening to a book from start to finish presents few (if any) difficulties.

Unfortunately a number of e-readers such as the Cobo are currently useless from the point of view of blind people as there is no ability for the visually impaired individual to have books read aloud. It is to be hoped that those manufacturers of e-readers who do not, at present build in speech capability will, in the future incorporate this facility making their products viable purchases for those with little or no vision. The world of reading should be open to everyone not just those who have vision.

(For my collection of erotic short stories “The Girl At The Bus Stop And Other Erotic Short Stories”, by K Morris please visit http://www.amazon.com/other-erotic-short-stories-ebook/dp/B00A6H75Y6/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1353136476&sr=1-2&keywords=the+girl+at+the+bus+stop. If the link doesn’t work please visit Amazon’s Kindle Store and search for “The Girl At The Bus Stop And Other Erotic Short Stories” by K Morris).