[Diabetes-talk] Dex com and T simple

Thu Oct 2 19:02:51 UTC 2014

Tamera:

It's not a question of "being allowed" to have accessible devices. Rather,
it's a simple matter of no one wanting to pay for the development and
manufacture of such devices given that we, the blind, are such a small
market.

Mike Freeman

-----Original Message-----
From: Diabetes-talk [mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Tamera via Diabetes-talk
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2014 11:14 AM
To: 'Sandra Ryan'; 'Diabetes Talk for the Blind'
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] Dex com and T simple

It sure is a shame that as blind people with diabetes we are  not allowed to
have the same access to  providing ourselves with the best care, available
to  sighted diabetics.
I used the disatronics pump years ago, as It was the most user friendly..
with the various  tactile buttons, but as we all know, it's a guessing game
on beeps tones or alarms and what  the pump is telling us it  needs
attention too.
This gal with Tandem at least seemed to be a bit sharper than the fella you
encountered. 
The T simple, did have  buttons easily felt, and I did like the insulin
bladder feature over  what I had in past a cartridge to refill... and
supposedly it has Bluetooth, but not  being used yet, guess we can only hope
they will  have someone who will work on developing that  part of it to work
with our phones  etc... for accessibility.
While I'd love to  try  a pump out again, It's a scary  thought to not have
a clue what its doing independently.

I've been using the one touch glucose meter, not recalling its name, fairly
consistently, with its Bluetooth features, called and chatted once with a
tech person.. but sure would be nice to have some beeps or tones as prompts.
Short of that and if it would keep more than 14 days  in memory, I would
give this glucose meter a thumbs up.
One other comment on that meter would be I prefer the  strip to have the
blood draw at the end rather then on the side of the strip, just a personal
thing perhaps.
Tamera

-----Original Message-----
From: Diabetes-talk [mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Sandra Ryan via Diabetes-talk
Sent: Wednesday, October 1, 2014 7:46 PM
To: 'Mike Freeman'; 'Diabetes Talk for the Blind'
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] Dex com and T simple

Last weekend, I attended the Taking Control of Your Diabetes seminar in Des
Moines, Iowa.  It's a good program--practical, they admit no one's perfect,
and there's lots of good education and exhibits.  I spoke in a session about
continuous glucose monitoring about our inaccessibility issue.  The session
presenters were a young doc from California who has diabetes, and the editor
of Diabetes Forecast, who lives here and also has diabetes.  Before I spoke,
a lady had mentioned that Medicare won't pay for CGM.  The doctor told us
that, of the technologies currently available, all are great, but CGM is the
most useful, because it gets at one of people's most common complaints:
having to poke themselves for glucose readings.  

I said that diabetics who are blind or visually impaired have a different
problem: None of the CGM's or insulin pumps are accessible.  Both presenters
said they are aware of this, and that they believe these technologies must
be made accessible.  I was told both in this session and the one on insulin
pumps that the research demonstrating improved quality and quantity of life
using technologies has been done and is readily available, and both
presenters agreed it is a problem for blind people that they can't have the
best treatments because of inaccessibility.  

I also spoke with a representative of Tandem and one from Johnson & Johnson,
who makes the Animus pump.  The Animus rep understood why we need
accessibility and encouraged me to work toward getting it.  The Tandem rep
clicked his pen about a thousand times and told me that negotiations to get
accessible pumps and CGM's "will never be friendly."  

In one of the education sessions, I learned that the Medtronic screens are
very hard for anyone to read, that the Animus is much more readable, but
still difficult.  I have a handout, but from memory I think it was the
Omnipod that was most readable, but it had a different problem.  Definitely
none is perfect.

So it was an interesting way to spend a Saturday.

Sandi

-----Original Message-----
From: Diabetes-talk [mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Mike Freeman via Diabetes-talk
Sent: Wednesday, October 1, 2014 4:06 PM
To: 'Tamera'; 'Diabetes Talk for the Blind'
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] Dex com and T simple

Way to go, tamera. Hopefully, those people came away at least slightly
enlightened.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: Diabetes-talk [mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Tamera via Diabetes-talk
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2014 12:43 PM
To: diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Diabetes-talk] Dex com and T simple

I walked in the local JDRF walk this past Sunday and spoke with a person
from Tandem who makes the T simple pump, and she also uses a DEX com
herself, and wondered  if anyone is using either or finding any usable
accessibility with these. 

They sound terrific, but  meaningless with the lack of user accessibility.

Tamera

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