Is Computer Technology making You Run in circles?

Over thirty years ago the internet and email were embraced in higher education before trickling down and being accepted in every school and library.  A screen-reader that could work with the internet and email had not been invented at the same time, so people who were blind or visually impaired were left out in the cold for several years.  History is repeating itself as Basic HTML has been replaced by a different code that is used to create web pages and emails.  This time, the screen-readers are working, but the blind and visually impaired are the ones who must make the accommodations and adjustments as they try to continue their conversations for work and fun.

 

Computers were invented to make life easier.  The new code that replaced Basic HTML is actually more time consuming and offers many annoying features.  It decides what email is important while adding extra steps to give this information.  It wants to tell you how to reply to a message.  This is artificial intelligence at its worst.  Finding the link you want to open the Bin, Spam, and other pages by using the old “Find” command no longer works.  The tutorials when found and unzipped could not be played on the Daisy talking book machine as promised.  The In Box, when found, has a lot of chat from the screen-reader before finally presenting a link.  Want to compose?  The screen-reader won’t allow you to hear the name you type, but it does read from a list of possible names, including the one you just typed, and then says it is not there.  The screen-reader often gives you the opposite information that you must ignore.  When you hit “Send,” you can trust that the mail reaches its destination Or is in your list of drafts if the computer decides that this is the right place for it.

 

I am told that the new code is causing problems for sighted users as well as the sight impaired.  “Basic HTML” is still read by the screen-reader at the top of the Home Page of Gmail.  Even though the button no longer works, I hope it will be restored soon.  Until then, I am circling the wagons.  I’ve been advised to use my Apple iPhone instead of my PC to read and dictate email by a blind librarian.  I have no plans to fill out surveys, make purchases, or conduct any business on line at this time while using my PC unless there is something I must print.

 

I am reminded of the old song, “Got Along without You before I met You.  Gonna get Along without You Now.”  I had a job, attended graduate school, and was a publishing writer before the internet and email were invented.  I’ll just go back to using the telephone, snail mail, and local stores as I did in the distant past.  As I circle the wagons, no business—especially social media-that doesn’t have a person answering a phone instead of an on line “Help” or conversation will be used by me.  As the terms that must be read and agreed to before using email services state, the companies can do whatever they want unlike in other countries where things like cookies are not allowed by law.  This “Like It or Lump It” business practice is just one more thing that the blind and visually impaired have had to accept and adjust to along with 70-80% unemployment and living in poverty.

 

I worked my way through college and held down many jobs when I was almost fully sighted. The two weeks spent in the factory of the Westclox Corporation before being moved to the office as the summer replacement for the Credit Manager’s executive secretary taught me some life lessons that the blind and visually impaired need now. One afternoon as I walked out of the factory to go home for lunch.  My mother, who spent many years working at Westclox along with our neighbors and other family members, suddenly stopped and pulled some money out of her pocket.  She whispered for me to be quiet when I asked her what was going on.  Then I noticed a blind man playing an accordion as he faced the factory door.  One employee after another placed bills and coins in a container for him.  That is how blindness looked in the late 1960’s.  As technology keeps me from using social media and many web sites unless I pay a sighted reader, editor, or graphic designer, I am sorry I didn’t continue piano lessons.  The history of blindness has come full circle.  If the blind and visually impaired are not given technology equality soon. Blind beggars will become more visible as the numbers of the unemployed increases.

 

Choice is a word that we hear a lot in political circles.  Choice has never been an option for the blind and visually impaired.  Isn’t it time for a change?

 

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