so I'm reading Dear Blind Lady via BookShare (and why did nobody tell me about it before my Braille & VoiceOver teacher did yesterday morning?), and I had a thought, in that ADHD "skip a dozen links" sort of way:
about 8 years back, I was working with an orientation & mobility instructor who was in contact with the Helen Keller National Center (a residential program for teaching deafblind people independent living skills and job training). they train their consumers to use street-crossing signs.
aside: one of my issues is that I have a hard time localising sound, especially in crowded and busy areas (I hear via bone conduction, things have to be Loud before I pick them up without hearing aids, which kills positional data, unless I can feel it physically, like an idling semi).
anyway. so they were out of stock of these street-crossing signs at the time and didn't want to just…email her the design for it, sod knows why, and so I talk with a friend of mine who at the time worked at a print shop. she made me one, on lemon yellow paper, and laminated it.
now, here's the problem: it's a rigid 8.5x11 sign. I cannot fold it. consequently, after training with it once or twice at a quiet intersection, I have never used it again. it's currently on my desk, by the way.
so here is a question for my fellow disabled people: have you ever been given and trained on an accessibility aid that ended up never being useful in the real world?
#Accessibility #Disability #Disabled #ActuallyDisabled #NEISvoid