What can tech do for me?

There are many day to day activities that become difficult or even impossible with low vision. Things like reading, shopping, getting around etc, can now be made so much easier since computers and more recently smartphones have become commonly available and relatively cheap. Using such devices can give blind people independence. I have outline some of the activities that these technologies can help with below.

Reading
A smartphone can be used to read printed text e.g. letters, menus, signs etc. The basic process is that you take a photograph of the print, your phone then converts the photograph into text and then reads the text to you.  The results are very good depending on the quality jof the original print and the specifications of the phone. The newer the phone, the better the camera and the faster the processing. With the latest IPhone for example, the text is read back to you within a second or two of pressing the button to take the photo.

Shopping
Most retailers provide an online shopping facility. dAll you need to do is go to the retailer’s website or app, choose what you want, pay by credit or debit card and the goods arrive. Most deliveries arrive within a day or two but some shops are now offering a same day service.

The large supermarkets such as Asda, Tesco, Lidl etc provide eay to use apps for your phone that make the shopping experience very easy. You can create a shopping list, save your favourite items for easy retrieval the next time you shop. You can get the same deals that are availbale in-store.

Shopping online takes the stress out of shopping. You can do everything from your armchair or even wkhile out and about.. It doesn’t matter that you can’t see, you can search for specific items or even browse from lists of similar goods..

Many stores now provide delivery slots within a two hour time window so you can get on with whatever you normally do without the need to sit in waiting for your shopping. The stores will apply a charge for online deliveries but the charges are low and you can actually save money if you normally pay for buses or taxis.

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Helping blind People become independant