A Quarterly Newsletter VIEWPOINT January 2017
Barnet Borough Sight Impaired (BBSI)
Tel:/Ansaphone: 020 8200 5462
Website:
E-mail: Reg. Charity No: 1058045
Hello, and welcome to the January edition of Viewpoint. As you may have heard Barnet Borough Talking Newspaper has closed. Our Newsletter, Viewpoint is available in Print, CD or via email. If you would prefer a different format from the one you haveat the moment, please let our Secretary know.
And here are our Future Meetings:
Tuesday February 7th –Paul Payne and his Nephew will be entertaining us on the keyboards with a selection of songs and melodies from the shows and with one or two of his own compositions.
Tuesday March7th–Safer Neighbourhoods – Wendy Boyne from the Metropolitan Police and her colleagues will be talking to us about Home Security, Scams and how to make sure you keep safe. This is an informal meeting and you will be able to discuss security matters in confidence.
Tuesday April 4th–BBSI’s Annual General Meeting. We look forward to welcoming the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor David Longstaff to the meeting.
The meetings take place at St Mary’s Church Hall, Hendon Lane, Finchley, N3 1TR from 1.15pm - 3.30pm and include ‘Joyful Movement’ exercise class, delicious refreshments and a raffle.
To get to our meeting by bus, the best one is the 125 which terminates by the Library, a two-minute walk from the Church Hall. Alternatively, buses 143, 326, 82 or 460 stop a short walk from the venue. The closest tube station is Finchley Central.Please contact our Secretary, Lis on 020 8349 4705 for further details of any meeting.
Time for a smile
After many years of studying at a university, I’ve finally become a PhD… or Pizza Hut Deliveryman as people call it
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A man to a psychiatrist: “How do you select who should be admitted to your facility?”
The psychiatrist replies: “We fill a bathtub with water and give the person a spoon, a cup and a bucket. Then we ask that person to empty the bathtub.”
The man smiles: “Ah, I understand, if you are sane you would take the bucket.”
The Psychiatrist replies: “No, a sane guy pulls the plug. Do you want a room with or without a balcony?”
Letter from Edinburgh January 2017– by Sandra Roeder
(For new members, Sandra was a dedicated volunteer for BBSI from 2008 until January 2015)
A Happy New Year to all members and volunteers of BBSI. I hope you all have an enjoyable and prosperous 2017.
As I write, snow is forecast. I’m not sure if the city comes to a grinding halt the way it did in London as this is my first winter where I’ve had to be out and in the centre by 9am! Talking to other people who live north of the river Forth in Fife, it seems to take them only about 10 minutes longer to get into the city centre by train. At least now the city is quiet - it seemed as busy as during the summer because of myriad ‘winter’ events, Christmas markets, theatre, ice-rinks etc.
Ron, my husband, recently went to an RNIB research event at the Royal Bank of Scotland to try out some Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs or ‘Holes in the Wall) which had been designed for visually impaired (VI) customers. There were several machines and up to 8 VI people had been invited to test them and Ron was the first. He had to provide his own ear-phones which he had to connect to the ATM with the jack and from then on he was advised by a recording what to do. There were buttons with braille on them to help identify the different functions, but the colours were not designed for easy reading even if the user had some vision, and there were no raised roman numerals for those who don’t read Braille. The VI testers gave feed-back but it sounds as if they might need to go back to the drawing-board (or get a VI designer on the job!)
I have probably mentioned the Japanese were responsible for the ‘braille bricks’ found at strategic places on the pavement which attempt to guide VI people to crossing points in the street. Now, in Japan, birdsong has been introduced as a way of helping people to locate stairs that lead to a specific ticket gate in the station. The song helps the VI (with reasonable hearing) to get to their desired destination A variety of twitters are being used to guide the VI person to the ticket gates for the separate train lines. Different actual birdsong recordings are used and now the inventors are working on a system to automatically adjust the volume according to how noisy the locality is! Also as Japanese stations always have public toilets and in order that VI people can distinguish them, there are sound recordings constantly playing outside explaining the ‘Men’s toilet is on the left’, Ladies is on the right’, for example.
Well, keep cosy and come up north if you need a respite from all that rain and cold weather - it’s probably warmer up here just now!!
Computer Training for Visully Impaired
Middlesex Association for the Blind (MAB) are running a new one-to-one training course based in Woodside Park comprising 10 – 1 hour sessions to cover basic computer skills using accessibility software. It costs £10 a session or £100 for the ten ween course. Ring Martin Greaves on 020 8423 5141 for more details and to book lessons.
General Meetings Report - by Jonathan Cave
November 2016
After our ‘Joyful Movement’ exercises and refreshments, we had the opportunity to make Christmas and other celebration cards. As Anne Haines, who was planning to lead the activity was unwell, Ollie Natelson led the proceedings.
We were grouped in tables of four or five and given blank cards, marker pens, stickers and verbal instructions on how to make our own cards. Although cardmaking worked well for those of us with some sight, those with little or no sight found they needed a lot of individual help. The shared activity allowed members to have a good chat even if some of the cards were not fully up to shop standard.
September
Monica, who works for The Tate Gallery, came to talk and gave us the opportunity to experiment with charcoal, compressed charcoal and graphite on different types of paper. She brought with her a variety of unusual fruits and vegetables including coconuts and peppers, and asked us to draw with one hand what we felt with the other.This was followed by using tinfoil to model the vegetable in three dimensions.
Using the same technique, we experimented drawing our faces.
All our members were fully engaged and found the tasks very stimulating.
October
Jenny Coupe organised a special Open Day to coincide with Silver Week run by Barnet Seniors Assembly and had arranged for the MAB bus to be parked outside our meeting room. This bus has a variety of aids for the visually impaired including a talking microwave oven, magnifiers, smart phones, a variety of cooking aids and many other devices.
After a ‘Get to know you’ session, we had tea followed by a talk by Hayley Hurst, a Barnet Sensory Team Member, about adaptations in the home for visually impaired residents.
She stressed that sometimes quite small changes to usual ways of doing things can have a big impact. An example she mentioned was someone having a problem putting toothpaste on a toothbrush. She explained how toothpaste could be applied directly to the teeth or to a finger which could then be rubbed on the teeth before brushing. She also covered improvements in lighting, rails to hold onto and making steps more visible.
Many of these adaptions can be supplied by Social Services, which would allow people to stay in their own homes rather than going to a care home.
There were two stands in the hall. Optelec demonstrated several electronic viewers, which could magnify documents placed under a special camera as well as portable viewers which would easily fit into a pocket or handbag.
The other stand showed a brand new device, the Orcam. This consisted of a small camera attached to a pair of glasses fitted with earpieces. The Orcam could read and speak any text placed in front of it including a newspaper or a restaurant menu. The advanced version can also recognise faces.
Time for a Smile
Late one night a robber wearing a mask stopped a well-dressed man and stuck a gun in his ribs. "Give me your money," he demanded. Scandalized, the man replied, "You can’t do this – I’m a Treasury Civil Servant!" "Oh! In that case," smiled the robber, "Give me MY money!"
2016 – by Roger Coupe
Thirty two visually impaired people, helpers, friends and a dog set off on our Canal Boat Trip from Hemel Hempstead along the Grand Union Canal on a wonderfully warm and sunny day.
The section of the Grand Union canal that we saw was partly rural, quiet and a lot wider than we imagined from the TV series on the narrow canals shown recently. It was lined at regular intervals with residential moorings where boats were permanentlysecured. Some of the boats looked as though they had not moved in years, and some were sadly in need of a little TLC. We were introduced to the 4 crew for the trip, who all were all very friendly, and we spent a short time in the club house beforegoing aboard, where we were shown displays of lock models and mechanisms.
Boarding the boat was made simple as the boat was fitted with disabled friendly ramps and a lift system for physically impaired, and was fitted out with a kitchen and toilets; we were seated around tables, giving a relaxed feeling. The interior was very bright with all round panoramic windows offering excellent visibility.
We set off downstream and passed through four locks, with the aid of models and crew it was shown how the locks operated. The boat had a deadweight of 34 tons, and it was amazing how it was lowered or raised purely by lettingwater in or out of the lock with the paddles situated on the gates, or on the lock walls. We noticed that the lock gate design varied from lock to lock and even in any one lock, and were encouraged to get on and off the boat if we wanted to assist the crew opening and closing the gates, though most people were quite happy to watch the scenery go by at 4 mph and soak up the sunshine. Several people had a go at steering the boat (with a little assistance.)
We stopped for lunch before turning round and returning to the boat yard. The fish and chip delivery and organisation left a lot to be desired and this has been taken up with the boat company.
On our return journey we went through the four locks, this time going upstream. It gave us a better view of the locks in operation, and how the gates hold back the huge volume and mass of waterin the "pounds", the stretch of canal between locks. The trip took over 4 hours and covered about 4 miles in each direction. It was apparent that the canals now function as a recreational facility,and are becoming "affordable housing" for more and more people. Canal maps show a huge number of purpose built marinas for long term living on canal boats.
A short addition to this document is being prepared for those interested in further information on the history and development of the canal system. During this short trip we saw the four stages of commercial transport in England. First, the historic main road, (A41); then the canal, which was superseded by the railway, (the original LMS line to the north), and the massive viaduct carrying the M25 over everything.
Time for a Smile
A company owner was asked a question, "How do you motivate your employees to be so punctual?"
He smiled & replied, "It's simple. I have 30 employees and 29 free parking spaces. One you have to pay for."
The NHS has announced it will pay for ten patients to be fitted with “bionic eye” technology – a pioneering retinal implant that can restore some sight to those with an inherited form of blindness.
The Argus II implant uses a camera, mounted to a custom pair of glasses, to capture footage from the user’s perspective. This information is transmitted wirelessly to an electrode array in the retina, which creates patterns of light and dark that the user interprets as shapes.
The technology has so far been used in trials for patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a form of blindness that results in patients only being able to discern between daylight and darkness. One of the three trial patients to have the implant installed is Keith Hayman, 68, a former butcher from Lancashire who was first diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in his 20s.
“Having spent half my life in darkness, I can now tell when my grandchildren run towards me and make out lights twinkling on Christmas trees,” he said. “I would be talking to a friend, who might have walked off and I couldn’t tell and kept talking to myself. This doesn’t happen anymore, because I can tell when they have gone.” These may seem like little things, he said, but “they make all the difference to me”.
The plan is for five NHS patients to be treated at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital and the other five to be treated at Moorfields Eye Hospital, both in 2017. The treatment will be offered free of charge, and the patients will be monitored following the surgery to see how it has improved their lives. If the results are encouraging, it could open the doors for more people to receive the treatment in the future.
The views expressed in this Newsletter are not necessarily those of BBSI.
Editors: Nigel & Lis Vandyk
Tel:020 8349 4705 email:
Items for inclusion in the next issue should be submitted not later than: 15thApril 2017