[il-talk] First aid and CPR

[Leslie Hamric]

Hi Andrew.  Yeah, I recently took a CPR certification class and worked with
the AED.  It is accessible once the pads are lined up because the machine
talks you through everything. I have a few thoughts about the ability to
make lining up the pads accessible to the blind.  First, someone sighted
would most likely get you the AED so you could simply ask that person to
line the pads up as shown in the picture.  Once that's done, you can do the
rest.  Second, in my opinion, the main goal is to respond as quickly as
possible to save someone's life and if that means using a bit of sighted
assistance to line the pads up and tell you the layout of the machine, ,
then so be it.  Since all AED's are different, it might not be practical to
make them accessible.  I do believe it would be worth looking into, however,
as someone may come with a way I've never even thought of. In the meantime,
I'm just trying to look at the situation realistically here.  Just my two
cents worth.
Leslie

-----Original Message-----
From: il-talk [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Webb
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 5:06 PM
To: 'NFB of Illinois Mailing List'
Subject: [il-talk] First aid and CPR

Hi all,

 

I mentioned earlier in the week that I'd be attending a CPR certification
class.  I did so, and it was a good experience.  This won't come as news to
many of you, but it was good to get the reassurance that CPR can be
performed just as capably by first responders who are blind as it can by
anyone else.  However, this class also provided my first hands-on
introduction to the use of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs).  This
device seems invaluable, and yet from my experience also seems quite
inaccessible to the blind, i.e., vision seems necessary to properly place
the pads on the victim, and I found no apparent workaround.  I haven't found
any resources online that indicate to the contrary. Does anyone have any
insights or knowledge on this?  It would seem to be a wonderful thing if
blind people could themselves operate AEDs, which when properly utilized can
boost chances of survival dramatically.

 

Regards,

Andrew

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