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

Sat Jul 28 21:41:41 UTC 2018

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> 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>
Cc: Gary Wunder <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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