Re: Dear Blinktards
Greetings all.
Okay; let's address the topic's main points. Before I do that, I must say that I was not offended by anything Lawrence_McSu wrote. Do the various blind communities act self entitled? No, not exactly; the individuals that are in said communities act self entitled; I've witnessed this before. Unfortunately, those who act this way are a very vocal minority and due to them dominating each group whenever they can get away with it, people think that they represent aforesaid groups as a whole. As for companies charging far more than they should, unfortunately this is a very niche market and although not small by any means, the sighted far outnumber the blind and low-vision. I'm not sure what can be done about products that are seemingly very expensive; I say this because the majority of us don't earn much money and because of that, said products are indeed very expensive for us. I don't know how much an average blind or low-vision individual makes but I earn around £900 a month. This may sound like a lot but it really isn't. Once you factor bills and expenses, you're left with around £200 or so to do with what you will. If you want to buy that brand new braille display, you'll have to save up and not buy any luxuries or even go out to restaurants if you can help it in order to save up. If you want to earn more then you'll have to find employment that pays well and try not to spend the majority of what you earn on transportation but try to use either public transportation or walk if possible. Unfortunately for many people, it's a vicious circle because the more you earn, the less you have if you have no choice but to use what you earn on transportation. That's why I quit the job I once had at a perfumery testing out different smells because even though I was earning, I had to spend it on transportation and I ended up with less in my bank than what I had before the job. That doesn't mean however that I don't mind working, it does however mean that it wouldn't make any sense working at a dead end job that I didn't enjoy and that doesn't pay well.
As for movies being audio described, more are coming but unfortunately some of the older titles may never be described unless we ask someone to do that for us. As for braille menus, ramps to make places wheelchair accessible and the like, I don't deny that not all places are accessible for wheelchairs and not all restaurants have braille menus and that's where we need to rely on the goodness of others. How about we ask them to apply to be on just eat or some other service of that nature so that they are at least accessible electronically? As much as it would be nice to live in a world where everything is accessible, it's better if we can adapt to the world as it is. As for more technology being accessible, we now have smart speakers, smart phones etc and more devices are able to be controlled from said smart devices. I am eternally grateful for what I have and it's better to ask for things to be made accessible rather than demanding. I'm all for the carrot and never the stick.
As for banding together as a single unified group, or a number of groups with similar goals, that's what petitions are for. Check out change.org and you can either create or sign existing petitions that you feel strongly about and that match your goals.
Kind regards, Amin Abdullah.
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