[Colorado-Talk] sharing an inaccessibility challenge

[Jo Elizabeth Pinto]

Hi Doula. I'm sorry you had to spend a night in the hospital without the use of your hearing aids. That sounds like it would have been scary. I'm glad you're recovering.

From: Colorado-Talk <colorado-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Doula Jarboe via Colorado-Talk
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2024 7:11 PM
To: 'NFB of Colorado Discussion List' <colorado-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: doula.jarboe at gmail.com
Subject: [Colorado-Talk] sharing an inaccessibility challenge

Hi Everyone,

     As I mentioned, I've been in the hospital for about the last week and a half.  I wanted to share an experience I had because of an inaccessible application.  If people think I should write this up more formally for the Blog or the Monitor or some other publication, I can do so.  But right now, I'm just wanting to share this experience with people who will understand because of our family and organization.

     So, most know I identify as DeafBlind.  I wear hearing aids with rechargeable batteries.  The charger has lovely little lights that light up when the hearing aids are charging properly.  So helpful for me right?  I also have an application on my phone that works with my hearing aids.  Sort of.  Some things work just great, some things have the button, some things you get into the section and there's no information there.

     Friday evening I moved from ICU to the regular hospital floor.  One of my hearing aids was dying so I stuck it in the charger.  Maybe an hour to an hour and a half later I pulled it back out to use it and was still receiving the low battery signal.  So obviously not getting charged.  Now I'm starting to worry because the other hearing aid is starting to die as well.  Wes, my husband showed up to visit, and he's both sighted and technology is his specialty.  He finally figured out it was the charging cable that needed replacing.  However, by the time he figured that out both hearing aids were completely dead.  I spent a good while that night without the use of my hearing aids because I didn't have full access to the application that could have told me pretty immediately that the hearing aid wasn't charging.

     That was my bad experience, if we can get the  web and application accessibility act passed, something like this I might be able to avoid.  Thank you for listening.
Warmly,
Doula
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