[nfbwatlk] FW: [List] UK article about blind youth & internet

[debby phillips]

I found this article disturbing on several levels, but I also am 
left with questions.  First of all, how old is Lee?  Why is he 
not allowed out?  (I can't blame him for not wanting to go with 
his sister).  I never wanted to go anywhere with my brothers 
either).  I don't know what technology is available there-do they 
use JAWS, or other products that we do, or does the UK have their 
own versions of stuff?  I felt like I had stepped back about 
fifty years.

I do wonder about blind folks here-has research been done (of 
course it has somewhere I'm sure) about blind people living in 
poverty in the U.S.?  What is the percentage of blind folks here 
that have some kind of computer access?  What about smartphones?  
Is the 70% unemployment among the blind still an accurate figure?  
Is it higher?  Lower?  Just some questions I pondered as I read 
this article.

I'd love a Star Trek kind of computer.  You know, Jean-Luc says, 
"Computer, Earle Grey, hot".  For me it would be either "Coffee, 
hot, black, medium roast, or Mocha, double shot, no whipped 
cream."   Lol.