I actually use GPS more for telling me streets and places than
directions. While it's certainly no substitute for a cane or guide dog
and good travel skills, for me it's just as important. I remember back
in 2009, this was when I was using way finder on a Nokia Symbian phone,
I had gone out for a nice long walk, on the way home, one of the
streets had an interesting curve in it and I found myself in a
different place than I expected. I probably would not have gotten back
on track had it not been for the GPS program, and it was kind of late
so there was no one around to ask. These days, having nearby explorer
on my android devices, and the sendero seeing eye app and blindsquare
on my iphone are good things for sure.
Original message:
Wow, Cheree! what a story!
Glad you had friends you could call and that all worked out well! :)
I love the fact that GPS apps are so prevalent on mobile platforms now.
-And that so many of them are at least usable for us. It's very freeing
when you think about it. :)
In addition to assisting people you are with, they can go a long way to
helping people get acquainted with their environments so that we can
really get a better sense of our surroundings.
Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful night!
Smiles,
Cara :)
On Aug 28, 2013, at 9:08 PM, Cheree Heppe <che...@dogsc4me.com> wrote:
Cheree Heppe here:
The use of the GPS in a car could only have happened to somebody in a
sit-com, but, trust me, it happened to my friends and me this afternoon.
A pair of apparently solid sandals that I wore to work completely broke
down, leaving me the choice of walking in my nearly bare feet over
questionably clear sidewalks and streets to get home. I decided that
would be a very risky plan and phoned a family I have known for some
years with an emergency plea for transport or to borrow a pair of
shoes. All of the girls and their mother wear the same size shoe as I do.
The mom, Carolyn, agreed to pick me up after my work day and drive me
home and share a pair of shoes until I could step on to home turf and
return them.
At about 17:25, long after I got outside in my nearly bare feet, they
hadn't arrived. Two phone calls determined that Carolyn had parked her
SUV in one of those self-serve parking garages and walked several blocks to me.
When Carolyn and her daughter, Hannah, saw me outide my building, they
simultaneously realized that they'd forgotten the loaner pair of shoes
in their car.
Carolyn wore a double pair of socks and let me slip into her sneakers.
We carefully, for Carolyn's sake, wended our way to find the building
and her SUV.
Once up the ramps and at the car, we all got inside, only to have
Carolyn realize that her credit card was at home next to the laptop.
This car park requires a credit card in order to open the exit gates.
We decided to use my card. Carolyn took it to the machine, where,
because of Braille labelling I affixed with the card number, etc, it
promptly got well and truly jammed in the machine. Naturally, it
hadn't gotten to the stage to let us, or the ever-growing line of cars
and driers out of the parking structure.
On the automatic card machine now jammed with my card is a keypad to
use in case of problems. Carolyn dialed and explained that a card had
gotten jammed in the machine.
Several staff from the Embassy Suites to which the parking structure
belonged, came out and could not get the card out. Meanwhile, the
drivers were making increasingly interesting suggestions about our situation.
Finally, the hotel engineer came with a pair of needle-nose pliers and
pulled the card out.
All and sundry breathed a really large sigh of relief and we all got
free egress from there.
Not, for the GPS part.
Carolyn is not familiar with the city and I am not familiar with driver
helps. What a team. So, I brought up WAZE, a navigation and traffic
GPS that one of my former readers swears by. Sure enough, after I set
it up, I had to turn off VoiceOver to Carolyn's sighted daughter could
read the directions to Carolyn. WAZE is more accessible than it
started out to be, but still is not blind friendly enough to use the
way we would really like. It's amazing for sighted users, however.
We found our way home beautifully.
If I actually learn how to use some of my GPS apps, I suspect I will
have powerful tools in the palm of my hand. I have Ariadne and Blind
Square and they help more than hinder. Maybe I'm making GPS progress, eh?
Regards,
Cheree Heppe
T
Sent from my IPhone 4S
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