by Will Mincey
Being blind or visually impaired can make the most ordinary tasks seem difficult if not impossible, especially for a newly visually impaired person. Managing day-to-day routines may become bewildering and frightening. Keeping track of information that once could be accomplished casually using pencil and paper can become an overwhelmingly stressful task. Once I worked with a person who could not read braille because of neuropathy. He spent hours and hours compiling a list of all the important people and phone numbers in his life and important appointments and dates onto an audiocassette. It took hours of time to retrieve information, and alas, when the tape finally broke, as cassettes will do, hundreds of hours of work and all of the information had been lost.
I worked with another person who wrote phone numbers, addresses, and other important information on sheets of paper with a bold marking pen. The system worked for storing important data, but because my student couldn’t actually read anything she had written even a few hours after putting it down on paper, she had to wait for sighted help to retrieve any of the data stored in her meticulously prepared records. It is just as important for people with vision problems to have quick access to information as it is for the rest of the population, who can rely upon address books, cell phone menus, and PDAs.
In today’s fast-paced, information-rich society, it is crucial for each of us to keep track of personal information, addresses and phone numbers, appointments, business memos, and a host of other kinds of data. For those with good vision, the Palm Pilot and other miniature handheld devices can make the difference between career success or failure. We in the blind and visually impaired community have not fared as well with accessible or affordable products that can keep us organized. Of course, there are several wonderful notetakers out there, some of which even include refreshable braille displays, and most of which can speak aloud the data they contain. But these devices are far outside the ability of many people who are blind or visually impaired to afford. Many of us have learned to rely on small notebooks complete with slates and styli, or small handheld cassette recorders, and battery powered calculators. Think about what it’s like to pack your briefcase, or backpack, or purse; you need a checklist before you leave your house!
Well, you can leave all these items at home from now on. The affordable Voice Mate will take care of all of your organizational needs and many more.
If you can use a push-button telephone keypad and follow step-by-step instructions, then the Voice Mate is a product well worth considering for purchase, to assist you in your daily routine. All of the prompts are clearly spoken, and once you have familiarized yourself with the buttons, you will wonder how you ever got along without this handy helper.
How many times have you bought a product you thought would meet your needs as a blind or visually impaired person, only to give it away, or stash it in a drawer or on a high closet shelf —because you found it didn’t really do the job? When you bought the device, perhaps some things seemed to be a perfect match for your needs, but as things turned out, other aspects of the device involved a visual display which made the product practically useless to you without sighted help.
The Voice Mate has been well designed, and if you have a vision problem, you will find it very accessible. The company’s refreshing attitude toward its visually impaired customers and their quick on-line response to customers who have questions about the product’s operation are truly wonderful. The Voice Mate has been consistently updated according to the desires and requests of the users group which interacts with the engineers and designers who created and continue to upgrade the product. The Voice Mate is, literally, changing the lives of blind and visually impaired people all over the world.