Retina NZ Newsletter May 2015:
From the Editor 1
From the President’s Desk 2
Tech Bite: ICY Navigation 3
Retina NZ Meetings 4
Audio Described Concerts 5
Able Television Service: Usage and Usability Report 5
A Turn About the Grounds 6
Gordon Sanderson - Otago’s Renaissance Man Retires 7
Meet a Member: Judy Campbell 10
Retina in a Petri Dish – The Kiwi Cooking the Recipe 13
Research by the Patients of the Disease 13
Spotlight on Low Vision: Banking Update 14
Recipe: Asparagus Dip 15
Regional News 15
Retina NZ details 17
From the Editor
Hello everyone and a happy autumn to you!
You may remember the artist Pinky Fang who was profiled in the last newsletter. She has been in the news recently, unfortunately not for her fantastic art work, but instead for being refused the discounted bus fare she is entitled to because she didn’t ’look blind enough’ to suit the bus driver. Pinky was carrying her Blind Foundation membership card, as well as her discount card for the Wellington bus service, stating that she was indeed blind.
The story was picked up here in New Zealand, and then by the Daily Mail in the UK, and news outlets in North America and Canada. Clearly, the story resonated within the blind and partially sighted community worldwide as there was a lot of online activity about the story. Hundreds of people shared their own experiences of not appearing ‘blind enough’ to suit the mainstream public’s understanding of blindness.
Foundation Fighting Blindness’ “Eye on the Cure” blog ran the story and asked their readers for their own experiences. Some of the responses were typically similar; rude bus drivers or shop assistants ... however this one was perhaps even more disheartening: “An old friend said, ‘Aren’t you sort of faking it?’ I asked for her car keys. ‘If you want to see real faking, let’s go for a joy ride.’”
As someone who is experiencing RP in their thirties, with no Blind Foundation cards, no cane, no aids of any kind, I feel I have to justify not being able to see very well in certain circumstances, even to people who have known me a long time. How come I can read the menu in this restaurant, but I couldn’t even walk out of the movie theatre unassisted? My eyes take a long time to adjust to low light, and sometimes things are better or worse than other times. It does make me slightly defensive at times and I often feel the need to explain why I can or cannot cope in some cases.
This frustration isn’t limited of course to those who are partially sighted. Anyone with one of life’s less visible disabilities would struggle with this. The need to put someone in a certain box is frustrating; if I say I am not legally blind, then I find people say to me ‘oh yes, I have terrible eyesight too’ in a slightly dismissive way.
There is comfort, strength and, most importantly, understanding from being a member of a patient group such as Retina New Zealand. I feel lucky to be a part of it. There is a huge amount of comfort to be found with people who know what you go through, no explanations necessary.
Zoe Hill
Newsletter Editor
From the President’s Desk
Dear Retina NZ members,
Our newsletters have always featured gadgets, innovations and enabling strategies that make our lives easier. Our aim of course is to offer information that is relevant, practical and encourages you to explore a little. In recent weeks I discovered an iPhone app that I think encapsulates our aim very well, and I really do need to spread the word for a number of reasons. It is offered by a not-for-profit that needs volunteers and donations to survive, offers an amazing service, and brings sight-impaired people and sighted volunteers together from all over the world.
The ‘Be My Eyes’ story began in 2012 when Hans Jørgen Wiberg, a visually impaired Dane recognised that blind people often need help to cope with smaller everyday tasks, where a ‘pair of eyes’ could make a significant difference. Three years of hard work successfully concluded with launching the app in January this year.
Be My Eyes (www.bemyeyes.org) is a network of eyes that connects blind people with volunteer helpers from around the world via live video chat. A blind person requests assistance in the Be My Eyes app, the volunteer helper receives a notification for help and a live video connection is established. From the live video the volunteer can help the blind person by answering the question they need answered.
Hans’ worldwide pleas to “lend your eyes to the blind” has been such a runaway success that there are more than ten times the amount of seeing helpers than there are blind users meaning that any delay is a result of the helpers all wanting to help at once!
My own experience has been fantastic. Pointing my phone at the previously inaccessible screen on my treadmill in the garage, I asked “what are the readings?” The young lady from Bangkok, after requesting adjustments to how I aligned the camera replied “distance is 9.07 and speed is 10.8”. I connected with a bloke from Singapore and asked if he could describe a photo as we tested the app at work in my office “there are two couples, they both are old” how old do you think “oh, quite old, at least 30”. Seems age is in the (bemy)eyes of the iPhone holder eh?
In hoping that you can avoid the cold more successfully than I appear to have avoided the distinguishing features of being old, I wish you all the best for a pleasant winter.
Fraser Alexander
President
Tech Bite: ICY Navigation
By Zoe Hill
There has been a fair bit of media coverage in the past month or so for a navigation app that assists visually impaired Londoners to successfully navigate the bowels of the underground train network. The system utilises the help of small beacons, stuck unobtrusively to the underground walls that communicate wirelessly with the users mobile device, telling them where to go to catch the trains.
The trial is only in one London underground station at the moment, but it is looking promising. Not to be left out in the cold, New Zealanders can experience this too, thanks to a small team of students in the North Island who have developed a similar concept in a phone app called ICY. Stacy McLean, Ernest Cunningham and Daniel Grey are Software Engineering students from the Wellington Institute of Technology, and created the concept as their final project last year. Things have moved rapidly, and the full launch is only a few months away.
The app has been made possible by the existence of ‘iBeacons’, which have been around for a couple of years now. They are essentially a small, low powered transmitter that can be placed anywhere to send signals to a device in its proximity, and can be used in indoor spaces too. Even though ‘iBeacons’ were released by Apple, most smartphones should be able to interact with them just fine. Each beacon has its own unique ID, and when a phone with the ICY app approaches a beacon, it receives information that has been associated with that ID. This could be information such as the location the person is in, and extra specific information a visually impaired user might need to navigate the location successfully.
There are two levels of information you can receive when you pass a beacon, one level simply stating where you are as you pass a beacon, and the second level of information gives you more detailed information that you might require. To access the second level of information, users simply tap their phone.
So far, the students have been focussing on placing the beacons at transport points (such as bus stops, train stations and pedestrian crossings), and at key public service business (such as banks and post offices).
Genevieve McLachlan, who we have profiled in a previous newsletter with her business ‘Adaptive Technology Solutions’, has been working with the students to develop the app, and also coordinating other people with disabilities to be involved in the early development stages, a crucial time for real end users to get involved. She has commented that the app’s ability to convey information about exactly where the counters or post boxes are at the Post Office for example is very valuable.
If you live in Petone you will be able to utilise this app first, and the ICY team are looking to expand across New Zealand if all goes well. They have tested their app thoroughly with the help of their early testers, and are just ironing out some Māori pronunciation issues in the lead up to the live launch.
So whether you are in London’s Pimlico station or Petone, it seems iBeacons are set to be part of a lot of visually impaired users’ futures.
For more information, visit their website
Weblink: www.icy.vision
Retina NZ Meetings
Thank you to everyone who came along to our recent meeting in Hamilton. We had around 35 people attend our meeting, and by all accounts it was a vibrant, informative event with attendees enjoying our speakers.
We had a fantastic line-up, with presentations by and discussions with Matthew Rudland (Adaptive Communications and Adaptive Technology Services Instructor at the Blind Foundation), Judy Small (Hamilton City Council Disability Advisor), and Rodney Stedall (Low Vision Specialist at Patterson Burn Optometrists).
2015 is rolling by quite quickly already, and it’s that time of the year again when we let you know about our AGM. This year it is lucky Wellington’s turn, so if you are in the Wellington area or surrounds we would love to have you along.
When: 29th August 10.30am to 3pm
Where: Braille House, 121 Adelaide Road, Wellington
A limited amount of transport may be provided. If you are interested in this, please contact Sue on freephone 0800 569849 (option 2).
We start the day with a brief AGM and election of officers, which is followed by President’s update. Before lunch we will have a talk by GenevieveMcLachlan of Adaptive Technology, and a chance to look at equipment over lunch. Following lunch Para Olympian Swimmer Mary Fisher will be speaking, followed by Optometrist Andrew Black who will talk about advances in optometry.
Nominations for President and the Executive Committee need to be with the Secretary, Sue Emerali, by 30th June ().
Audio Described Concerts
Chamber Music NZ is presenting two concerts for the visually impaired, one in Auckland (12th June, $55) and one in Dunedin (24th June, $45). The concerts are audio described and include a touch tour.
The audio described performances are part of their Turnovsky Jubilee Ensemble tour. Tickets include touch tour, free companion seat, Guide Dog access, Volunteer assistance.
Book before 29 May on 0800 266 2378.
Able Television Service: Usage and Usability Report
By Zoe Hill
You may remember an interview with the CEO of Able in a previous newsletter. Able is the service that provides both captioning for the deaf, and audio description for the blind and visually impaired on New Zealand television.
Able have just released a report into how widespread usage of their captioning and audio description services are on New Zealand television. They wanted to identify who was using their services, and what barriers stood in the way of potential use of Able’s services. They commissioned Colmar Brunton to carry out the research late last year.
The research showed that 1% of New Zealand’s population are using their audio description services on television. The results showed that there was a good level of awareness of their services among their intended audiences (captioning for deaf users and audio description for those with low vision or blindness). The clear call from both communities was to make Able’s services available on more programmes, channels, and platforms and to improve usability.
The sample size for the blind and low vision community was small. People who had previously responded in a 2014 Air Audience survey that they had ‘ever used the Able audio description service’ were re-contacted, as were members of the Blind Foundation willing to be interviewed. Able acknowledges that the small sample size might affect the ’robustness’ of the results for investigation of audio description usage.
43% of responders commenting on audio description found the service difficult to use (40% found it easy), and it seems overall audio description services were harder to set up and use than caption services.
What do you think? Do you use the Able service? Considering that the results of this survey are to inform their future strategies and planning, do you think enough weight has been given to the low vision service they provide?
Across the ditch in Australia, audio description was trialled on Australian TV in 2012. Following the trial, no regular service was instated. This has led to Vision Australia lodging a discrimination complaint against a handful of major TV networks with the Australian Human Rights Commission in February this year. Vision Australia believes that the lack of commitment to an audio description service such as those enjoyed in other countries (for example in the UK and here in NZ) is providing a discriminatory barrier to the 350,000 Australians who are blind or have low vision