When I had a cell phone last, it was a phone for older people with larger than
average buttons and, given my short term memory issues, of course, I can't
remember the name. But it wasn't a smart phone. All of the blind people on all
of the lists, have I phones, something I decided not to do in 2007 when they
appeared, because I knew I'd have problems learning with a touch screen. I
think that there has been one developed for blind people with buttons, and it
costs over $1,000. Several phones developed specifically for blind people have
been on the market only briefly so I wouldn't trust any of them. I just have a
land line Panasonic portable phone. There are several extensions with a speaker
phone and an intercom. It's portable so you can carry it with you. It announces
the caller, if you can understand what it's saying. And if you're sighted, it
has lots of other lovely features that aren't accessible to us. You might also
ask Laz what phones he's selling these days. One more thing. They do sell tiny
portable keyboards to attach to your I phone, I think so that you can actually
use it like you use your computer.
Miriam
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2021 9:39 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Phone ideas?
I have a question. Maybe I should say questions plural. On a list where people
think that fifty-two-year-old music recordings are something new this might not
be the best place to ask, but I am not subscribed to any lists right now where
this would be on topic. So since nothing is off topic here I thought I would at
least start here. My land line phone is acting up. Right now I am lucky if I
get a dial tone instead of some kind of mysterious beeping and incoming calls
are being cut off before I can answer. I have called the phone company to fix
it now twice and both times it started acting up soon afterwards. So I am
thinking that the problem might be in the physical phone rather than the line.
That would call for buying a new phone. If I buy a new phone I am thinking that
it might be about time for me to get myself into the twenty-first century like
everyone else and give up my land line for a cell phone as my only phone. But
if I do that I am going into it blind in more ways than just that my eyes don't
work. I have been wanting a smart phone for a long time because I am fascinated
by the many and varied cool things that one can do with them, but they are
expensive and I don't trust myself to be able to learn using a touch screen
very well. I always have been a lot better at learning things that you know
than I have been at learning things you do. That is why I used to be able to
take a lab and lecture
course and ace the lecture and nearly flunk the lab. I know that there are
a lot of choices that are not smart phones too and some that actually have
buttons. I think I could get along much better with buttons. But I don't know a
lot about all the choices that are available and which work better for a blind
person. Most of the people I know are so sight oriented that they can't imagine
a blind person working any device. So does anyone on this list have any advice?
Do any of you use a cell phone yourselves? If so, can you say something about
why it was a good choice for you and how much it costs and anything else you
might have to say about it?
___
--
Irvin D. Yalom “Truth," Nietzsche continued, "is arrived at through disbelief
and skepticism, not through a childlike wishing something were so! Your
patient's wish to be in God's hands is not truth. It is simply a child's
wish—and nothing more! It is a wish not to die, a wish for the eveastingly
bloated nipple we have labeled 'God'! Evolutionary theory scientifically
demonstrates God's redundancy—though Darwin himself had not the courage to
follow his evidence to its true conclusion. Surely, you must realize that we
created God, and that all of us together now have killed him.” ― Irvin D.
Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept