By Ikra Shakoor
Hi, my name is Ikra Shakoor, I am 27 years old and from Bradford. I have a condition called Bardet Biedal Syndrone which is a rare genetic condition which can affect different part of your body and I also have an eye condition called RP and cataracts. I wanted to share how I use technology and cook in a every day life as a blind person.
Accessible Technology
A helpful event for accessibility and technology which I attend in Leeds is Sight Village. It’s a great event and there is lots of equipment on display to try. But why is it so expensive when it can benefit vision impaired or blind people to be independent?
As VI people we use different kinds of accessibility equipment throughout the day. There is a lot out there such as canes, smart Ai canes, different screen readers, smart watches and Ai glasses.
To get around day-to-day I use a normal cane. I would like to get a smart Ai cane but I haven’t got one yet as they are expensive. One day I hope it will give me more independence as I like the way it works with an app. You input a route and it will tell you if anything is in front of you, or right or left.
To make my iPhone and MacBook accessible I just zoom in and zoom out and use a black background on white text which is good for my eyes. The smart watch I use has voice recognition and is really good for fitness, health and lots of other stuff.
Cooking when you are blind
How does a partially sighted or blind person cook? There different ways of cooking and pieces of equipment, such as talking microwaves, that can really help.
You can put tactile stickers on buttons, use talking scales, tactile measuring jugs, one-cup kettles and air fryers.
When using the one cup kettle, you put half a cup of water in a kettle, turn on the button, put your cup underneath, and the water can go straight through into the cup. It means you will not burn yourself. You can get a stick-on cup which has a magnet which sticks to the table. So even if you accidentally knock it, it will not drop and break.
When you are chopping your fruit and vegetables, you might want use an adjusted chopping board as it safer. Or you can get a chopping machine – it can really cope with chopping anything, I find it easy and I waste less time.
Air fryers are accessible and easy to use you. I like them as I don’t burn my hand because you put the food in first and then you close the lid, press the on button and set the timer. When your food is ready, it will make a noise.
For more tips listen to my audio recording:
