Ignored by society, helped by technology

“What we find by stranger’s touch is we can say most of them are sympathetic and few of them are helpful too. Some say we are “ Divya jan “ , Some says we are “ Physically challenged “ , Some say we are living our bad past karma , Some don’t say at all “ just move away from us “ . These strangers sometimes even include our dearest family, neighbors and even friends. In our world, we consider our self-just humans or partially human trying to fit and find our place on this perfect earth. We are people who have been limited by the virtue of our vision. “

“When everyone started talking about cell phone, we were still trying to touch and count on the giant Landline to press the right button. Unfortunately, earlier no one consider developing a phone with Braille to assist the recognition of digits. After a while, we got hold of some cell phone with keypad big enough for us to run around our fingers and press the right key. Still, as the case goes we were still living in 19^th century, as the function for the phone is limited to calls only or occasionally hearing to radio, as we are not able to use the touch screen phones. “

“Just for a moment, close your eyes, hold your phone, and see how many functions you are able to perform. Do not share the number but hopefully you know how helpless you feel.”

This is part of a conversation on topic of “advancement of cellular technology “ , I had with old colleague of mine, who has zero vision since his childhood days .

Later I introduced him this new piece of tech, BOSE Quiet Comfort Headphone and asked for his opinion on the same.

For him, GPA seems to be a promising tech leap, which can enable him to find and play many things without even touching the phone’s screen. Thankfully, their voice is now the power, which can run all the functions of the phone. However, Passing clear instruction and hearing the audio commands is still an issue if there is too much noise in the background. In addition, with wired earphone, there is always a risk of theft of phone or wires getting entangled somewhere.

So with BOSE Quiet Comfort wireless headphones II ordinary person can play music, receive texts and get answers without glancing at the phone. However, for him, it actually help do host of things, which was very difficult to do earlier. Consider, he is stuck at one location and just wanted to call a cab that can pick up and drop to home. Over GPA, he can command to open a Taxi app and put our destination and we can get the cab and even call the driver to inform to call back when he reaches the point, as he may need some assistance locating them. Alternatively, he want to send SOS to a friend for help or wanted to text him about being safe then he just need to give voice command over his wireless headphones and its done.

As very few books are converted into Braille language, literature for people with low/zero vision is very limited. However, with Good Noise cancelling headphone, they can clearly listen to audio Podcast or e-books or use Text to Audio software to listen to the pdf/word files without any hassle. One touch on earphone to access any feature on phone, can help them in exploring the major features of Touch screen phone with more comfort.

For many technology is the way to ultimate luxury and for them, it is a way to be more self-dependent and living our life with less sympathy. This little piece of technology from BOSE seems to bring right solution for the niche audience who truly appreciate efforts of inventors.