Hello Anders, Thank you for your very kind words.
Sometimes, I feel so trapped by my blindness. There's a whole world out there and I would truly love to see it and be a part of it. More often than not, I find it extremely difficult to work up enough courage to try new things but, sometimes, only sometimes mind you, with the help of mobile technology such as iPhone, I manage to succeed for a little while. (smile) Mark -----Original Message----- From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Anders Holmberg Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2018 6:48 AM To: 'Chris Blouch' via MacVisionaries Subject: Re: VoiceOver, Apple Maps, Yelp, and Google Trips Make for a Fabulous Vacation Hi Mark! But this is quite encouraging to hear that you did it all alone. Ofcorse you have to get some help by sighted but that is not a problem or discouragement for me. I don’t know how good such things as walking in a city works for blind and low vission people works in the US but here in Sweden it sometimes works quite well and sometimes not. You have to be a bit brave too and that is my biggest issue these days. BUt its really nice to see the technique in progress. /A > 17 maj 2018 kl. 08:32 skrev M. Taylor <mk...@ucla.edu>: > > Hello Everyone, > > I just returned from a 4-day mini vacation to Seattle, Washington. > > I planned my entire sightseeing excursions using the Google Trips app. > In addition, I used the Apple Maps transit directions and walking > directions the entire time. All of this via VoiceOver. Oh, yes, I > used Yelp, extensively, also. > > Seattle has a mono-rail, a light rail system, and several bus systems. > It is truly a metropolitan destination. > > I stayed at a hotel in downtown Seattle. So, for example, I took the > light rail to the downtown area and then walked about 20 minutes to my > hotel. The Apple Maps directions were perfect. I really liked the > fact that I could easily track each train stop along the way so that I > knew exactly where to exit the coach. I did not realize, until this > trip that one can use swiping gestures to navigate along any transit > route in order to monitor one's progress along the route. Very, very > impressive. > > I won't bore you with the details but I will tell you that, thanks to > the Google Trips app, along with Apple Maps, and Yelp, I toured the > Space Needle, went to the Waterfall Garden Park, home of the original > UPS store, took an underground city tour, took a 1-hour harbor crews > tour, explored Pike Square, Pioneer Square, Bell Town, the Market > Square, went to the original Starbucks, took a ride on the largest > Ferris Wheel on the west coast, shopped at the new Amazon Go store (an > absolutely amazing experience, to say the least), and ate at some marvelous > restaurants. > > My point? I used public transportation, only. No Uber, Lift, or taxis. > Also, I decided what I was going to do, mostly on the fly, using the > Google Trips app. > > Now I'm not saying that the trip didn't have its challenges, for > example, there is a lot of construction going on in downtown Seattle > and I needed a lot of sighted assistance in order to navigate around > it, but I am saying that I am certain I would not have had as much fun > without my beloved iPHone > 8 Plus and several very crucial apps such as Yelp, Apple Maps, the > Amazon Go app, and of course, Google Trips for iOS. > > Now I am not suggesting that a blind or low vision person can rely on > any technology, alone, in order to explore a major city. After all, > at this point in history, technology is far from perfect. And, when > it's all said and done, what really made my vacation possible, was > good old fashion people skills as sighted assistance was absolutely > necessary for many of the activities described above. Be that as it > may, with the help of technology, I was able to independently explore > the major city attractions and decide how I wanted to spend my time. > > Let me add that, while I had a backup battery with me, I did not use it. > The battery life on my 8 Plus was beyond amazing. Even after over 12 > hours of use, I didn't run out of juice. Regardless, I was glad to > have a mobile charging source with me, just in case. > > While I had a lot of fun, I am delightfully exhausted and glad to be back. > For, as the saying goes, "there's no place like home." (smile) > > Mark > > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries > list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach > mark at: mk...@ucla.edu and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach > Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: mk...@ucla.edu and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor. You can reach mark at: mk...@ucla.edu and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
