[NABS-L] A technology recommendation for all of you

Sun Jul 29 23:23:10 UTC 2018

Hi Cricket and all,
As I finally had a chance to sit down and catch up on some emails, this story was honestly the one that was worth reading all the way through, and in that regards, I see why Aira might have came so useful. As I had a chance to finally attend my first NFB national convention this year in Orlando and soon enough finding out about the fact that AIRA guest access was available, I was eager to try the service myself. In addition, Aira rep at one point showed up to a program that I was a part of prior to me flying to the convention and I was well educated about the service at that point.  I simply could not believe the excellence and usefulness that Aira provided at the convention during my free usage, from me not getting lost as I try to locate various ballrooms and around hotels… While advocacy and asking for assistance is definitely a skill that should be maintained, I instantly heavily became more and more interested about getting the subscription plan as I begin to prepare my life towards college and for things to come next year. I plan to not only apply for scholarships for AIRA subscriptions but my hope is to get in touch with my VR councilor about my state rehab possibly getting the service for those who requests it.

Seyoon
On Jul 28, 2018, at 10:41 PM, Santiago H via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org<mailto:nabs-l at nfbnet.org>> wrote:

Hi everyone,
In regards to Connor's point, if you don't have decent skills when it comes to your independence, you won't be getting much out of Aira either. I think it's a common misconception that Aira will help those greatly who have not yet developed orientation and mobility skills and or daily living skills. This, however; is not the case. Agents aren't going to tell you when to cross the street, or when your food seems prepared if you are cooking. They will alert you of what they see, and the choice and responsibility is yours. Yes, advocacy is great, and I encourage it as well, but it's not going to get you far if you were just handed an assignment at the last minute which is not in an accessible format, or when you have to travel to a new location without much further notice. I hope we have been able to clear up these misconceptions about the service.

Santiago

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 28, 2018, at 7:16 PM, Cricket X. Bidleman via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org<mailto:nabs-l at nfbnet.org>> wrote:

Hi Logan!

Excellent questions. Thank you. AIRA is a relatively new innovation so
there won't be as much information as you'd like. I will again refer
you and anyone else to Gelena Correia, whose email is
gelena.correia at aira.io<mailto:gelena.correia at aira.io>. She will be able to answer your questions
about scholarships and packaging and shipping stuff. I can't
unfortunately. I know that there may be some sponsorships available,
but I don't know the exact details on that yet. I would email her with
questions. Thank you for at least giving this technology a chance
before immediately dismissing it.

Best,
Cricket X. Bidleman (she/her/hers)
Stanford University | Class of 2021

On 7/28/18, Logan Anderson via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org<mailto:nabs-l at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
Hi all,
I have a couple practical questions about the service. I have decided to try
it, because I think my situation it would be useful. I have all the
practical skills to get by without it, but it would make many aspects of my
college life easier. I’ve heard great things about the service and excited
to try it out. However, I’m kind of confused. I signed up for it, but I have
never received anything back from the service about when my glasses will
actually be shipping. I’m not sure if this is normal, but it does concern
me. I live in an area where unfortunately package theft does happen
regularly, and I worry that if I don’t know when it comes it may disappear.
I guess my question is, has this happened to anyone else, is it normal?
Also, how does one find out about scholarship programs to pay for the
glasses and service? I have googled many times, but for whatever reason
there seems to be little to no information about it on the website.
Thank you,
Logan Patterson

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 28, 2018, at 8:11 PM, Roanna Bacchus via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org<mailto:nabs-l at nfbnet.org>>
wrote:

Hi Cricket thanks for your message. I agree that Aira is a useful tool for
the blind. I have not personally used Aira, but I have heard lots of great
things about it.

On Jul 28, 2018 6:56 PM, "Cricket X. Bidleman via NABS-L"
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org<mailto:nabs-l at nfbnet.org>> wrote:

Hi Connor,

First of all, I welcome your perspective. I would, however, encourage
you to not make assumptions as to what I am and am not willing to do.
I mainly said what I did to illustrate the point that this technology
is helpful in many different areas of life. I never said that I am not
willing to self-advocate and I am, very much so, and I do. I would
also encourage others to self-advocate, but in situations where
self-advocacy didn't happen AIRA can be very helpful. That situation
had aspects to it that I did not feel the need to detail on email. No
one should feel the need to give every detail of everything on a
public listserv. The point is that it's useful during travel, and I
think that point is muddled a bit by this discussion. I would
appreciate if we could drop this discussion here, in order to preserve
the integrity of what I was trying to say. Thanks.

I also want to point out that there's an amazing amount of
misinformation you can get by asking random people for directions.
Many people don’t know their left from their right, including RA's.
Some people will tell you that something is “that way” or “over
there”, and you can end up more confused than when you started.

As blind people, our time is just as valuable as anyone else’s, and if
someone trained in the information blind people need so they can
navigate efficiently is available any time it’s required, why not use
a service that will improve our efficiency. Also, if on the first day
of campus there are a lot of confused people around asking questions,
being blind and having access to trained assistance actually gives us
a competitive advantage. Keep that in mind.

Again, I appreciate the meat of what you're trying to say and I think
that's important to consider as we continue into higher education. I
don't think, however, that what you're trying to say applies to my
situation and since I was the one in my situation, so I do have the
right to say that. Also, please be aware that the way you presented
your point was one that I could take very personally and though I'm
choosing not to, I would also encourage you to be cognizant f that so
as to offend as few people as possible. Thanks.

Best,
Cricket X. Bidleman (she/her/hers)
Stanford University | Class of 2021

On 7/28/18, Roger Newell via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org<mailto:nabs-l at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
I don't see the distinction between asking an RA for assistance or
using Aira. Visual assistance was required, so why not use a perfectly
good service?

On 7/29/18, Connor Mullin via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org<mailto:nabs-l at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
Hi Cricket,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on AIRA. As a recipient of a NFB
scholarship, I will also enjoy nine months of minutes. However, I would
like
to reflect on your story at Stanford.
I am anticipating using AIRA for tasks that are best solved by
self-directing visual aids, such as reading mail, reading library books
for
research projects, and identifying the colors of clothing to then label
them
tactilely. Yet, while I don't think relying on AIRA for travel
assistance
is
some kind of unforgivable sin, I would caution people from generally
recommending using AIRA in the way that you did at your first day at
Stanford. That is, you were hesitant to approach an RA for directions,
even
though you knew they would be the most oriented, because you felt
guilty
about bothering them. And I think that is an important hurdle for
everyone
to reflect on, recognizing that fears of approaching people for
directions
and highlighting your blindness is something that should not be passed
over
when talking about being an independent blind person.
Now, I'm not saying you never have, before or after that day, overcome
such
hesitations, nor am I saying that I have never psyched myself out of
asking
authority figures for directions. Rather, I'm simply saying that we
should
be careful not to inadvertently sell the benefits of AIRA as an
alternative
to building peoples' advocacy and nonvisual skills.
Thank you once again for your thoughts.

Connor

-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L <nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org<mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org>> On Behalf Of Gary Wunder via
NABS-L
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2018 10:28 AM
To: 'National Association of Blind Students mailing list'
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org<mailto:nabs-l at nfbnet.org>>
Cc: Gary Wunder <garywunder at me.com<mailto:garywunder at me.com>>
Subject: Re: [NABS-L] A technology recommendation for all of you

What an interesting story. Thanks.

-----Original Message-----
From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Cricket X.
Bidleman via NABS-L
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2018 12:07 AM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Cc: Cricket X. Bidleman
Subject: [NABS-L] A technology recommendation for all of you

Hi all,

This is long. Please read it anyway. As of last July, I received the
AIRA
Back-to-School award. Basically, this gave me free minutes on AIRA for
nine
months, the last of which recently ended. (Endless thanks to Kathryn
Webster
for being instrumental in that process.) I'll admit I was a little
skeptical
because first of all, I didn't think I'd use it. I also knew they had
basically repurposed Google Glass, and Google Glass in its original
form
was
kind of a floppy failure... And then some.

So Cricket, where's that "recommendation" you promised us? Well, here
it
is.
I can say, through my own abundant use of the software in my first year
of
college, that I sincerely feel that AIRA is revolutionizing instant
access
to all areas of life. Accessibility is a huge issue for us as blind
students
and though it's slowly being worked on in general, sometimes it's
necessary
to have instant access to things. I'd call it "accessibility on demand"
or
something like that. One particular instance comes to mind.

I was incredibly overwhelmed. It was my first day at Stanford,
September
19
of last year. My parents had just left me in a dorm full of people I
didn't
know, in a place I'd never been to. I was walking around, trying not to
bump
into things, when I mentally slapped myself for forgetting that I had
an
a
capella audition, and then another one, and then a choir audition, and
then
a meeting with my pre-major advisor. I really didn't want to be the
problem
child constantly asking for help from the RA's who, quite frankly, had
more
than enough disoriented freshmen to deal with. So, because I'm so
brilliant,
I walked out of my dorm with my cane, wearing a black dress and high
heels,
into 90 degree weather. I made it all the way down the hill by my dorm
and
then I had to mentally slap myself again because I realized
something...
I
didn't know the campus at all. I walked around a bit, and then got
turned
around, and then got lost, and then got even more lost. There were
freshmen
everywhere, but they were all lost too, and a bunch of them gave me
atrociously  wrong directions. I called AIRA and in five minutes, they
had
me straightened out and going in the right direction. Turned out I was
on
the opposite side of campus from where I was supposed to be. Thanks,
all
you
disoriented freshmen...

Let me tell you something about Stanford campus. you know how like
every
sane person designing a college campus makes them arranged like city
blocks?
There are clear streets, buildings are arranged in grid patterns,
they're
in
numerical order... Stanford's designer must have been crazy, because
this
campus is not like that at all. There are twists and turns everywhere
and
though there are a couple of main streets here and there, most of the
campus
isn't even nearly accessible by car, much less by some lost blind
student.
Google Maps doesn't really help, so my AIRA agent (Emma) was
cross-referencing three different maps while trying to keep an eye on
me
so
I wouldn't step in a fountain. Yes, that is a possibility here. People
actually jump in fountains for fun. Emma is phenomenal, and managed to
get
me to my audition on time. Part of that was because, by some happy
coincidence, I'd left three hours early, but even so I was rushing at
the
end. At least I made it, sore feet and all.

Anyway since then, I've had many experiences with AIRA, and all of them
have
ended up positive. One time I was chasing down a Uber because it wanted
to
ditch me... One time I was cramming for a test with a textbook that I
hadn't
gotten in Braille on time since it was my first quarter here. One time
an
agent was reading Plato's Republic to me when I may or may not have
taken
a
nap, and they may or may not have had to wake me up. They were really
nice
about it though. You know these people are awesome when they can even
pronounce pars opercularis properly. I can't even do that. (That's an
essential part of the brain involved in language processing by the
way.)
And
once they were able to describe, in extreme detail, a brain diagram I
was
studying for psychology. I later got the Braille diagram, and it was
nowhere
near as detailed as the AIRA agent's description.

So my point is, please do yourself a huge favor and get AIRA. You can
get
funding for it from the Department of Rehab. Or scholarship money can
go
toward it, or you can apply for their scholarships. I promise you it
will
be
integral as you go through education and life in general. If my word
isn't
enough, and even if it is, I fully encourage you to check out this blog
post
by Jonathan Mosen. He's a technology consultant who has way more
experience
than me. He's worked with Humanware and Freedom Scientific, and for
many
years has run his own consulting company. He designs websites, travels
a
lot, runs several podcasts and a radio station, writes books, and is
pretty
much the kind of person many of us aspire to emulate in terms of
success.
He
uses AIRA and in this post, talks about how powerfully this innovative
solution has impacted his life. Please give it a read--I promise it
will
change your outlook. https://mosen.org/aira/

Best,
Cricket X. Bidleman (she/her/hers)
Stanford University | Class of 2021

P.S. If you have Emma as your AIRA agent, tell her I said hello. :)

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