My name is Christina, I’m twenty-five, and I’ve been blind since birth.  Being born three months early can mess with a person’s retinas. 

However, my favourite and most useful technological advance isn’t new – It‘s actually over 200 years old.  It’s Braille.

In case you’re wondering, Braille is a system of reading and writing used by many blind people the world over. It’s made up of various combinationns of a six-dot cell (think of the number six on a dice).  For me, Braille is  my ink. Braille, despite its age, has been built into new technology just like many other adaptations. For example, I’ve gone from using a Perkins Brailler, which is basically a typewriter with only six keys, to a Braille display, which converts the information on a computer screen into Braille (I’m not an engineer, so I don’t understand how that’s possible).  You can even turn on a setting on an iPhone which allows you to type in Braille – that’s pretty good for a system that’s been around since 1809.

I’ve used Braille for everything since I was five – library books came through the door in big bags, like pizza delivery bags; they even had children’s magazines, which became teenage magazines.  It didn’t matter that the title wasn’t exactly the same – the content was what mattered. 

All through college, especially because I studied languages, Braille helped me hugely to learn spelling and grammar.  If I want to remember something, I find the physical act of putting pen to paper, so to speak,  helps me to memorise.     

So to sum up, Braille is more important to me than all modern technology – because for me it’s part of every piece of modern technology. 

She pinpointed again ‘R-T-E’ but this time the pauses between each letter were longer and still he could not sew them together.  The driver got out of the car, banged the door.  He went inside to the Home to get help.  A person said ‘How would I know?  She will tell you herself’.  His voice started wriggling ‘How, ho –ow?’  He could not say the word in one go. 

A warm looking lady came out to help – ‘where are you going’ she asked gently.  The woman pointed again ‘R-T-E’.  She asked ‘who are you meeting there?’  Her finger spread across her cardboard mount ‘G-R-O-U-P’.  The lady’s hair fell into the woman’s lap as she bent down to see what she was saying.  She kept opening draws of questions to try to give the driver a clear picture of where the woman was going.  ‘What kind of group is meeting you?’ the lady asked angrily as she stood there waiting for the woman to snake across her cardboard mouth.  ‘W-R-I-T-I-N-G  G-R-O-U-P’.  The mouth fell between her knees as she was stressfully pointing to each letter.  The lady left saying ‘I have no time to sit on the clock’.  The woman silently replied to herself ‘A century has not gone in 20 minutes’. The taxi sped on to RTE.

The taxi rode around RTE for ages, going back and forth to the Radio & Television Departments.  Each time the driver went into the Enquiries Office, the answer was the same.  Machines drilled many ears.  Nobody knew anything about my trip.  The woman was left in the car looking at the meter rising.  The clicks paralysed her mind hoping the man would not swirl the taxi around and speed back to the Home.  He kept chipping his lips on the taxi speaker ‘four one’ pause……. ‘four one’ …..  A creaky voice repeated ‘Do you know where this girl is going?’  ‘I don’t think she knows herself’ he replies.  The woman shook the head off herself saying silently ‘I do, I do’.

‘The man said the girl had a board full of letters’.  The speaker interrupts ‘She has a what?’  Pause….. ‘Did you say a bowl full of lettuces’.  Turnips fell down the woman’s jumper, she giggled with laughter.  The man shouted into the microphone ‘A BOARD WITH LETTERS’.  A phonecall to the Home was made.  The driver sat inside the taxi for a couple of minutes, waiting for an answer. 

Spots of hoped filled the woman’s eyes.  She saw a person from the Course going into the Enquiries office, hoping that the driver would go in and ask her.  The woman started to point to the girl as she strolled in off the street ‘A-S-K G-I-R-L  I-N  R-E-D’.  The reply was ‘be a good child, we will find out in a second’.  She even took the driver’s finger to skip around her cardboard with her but still the message did not get through.

Bleep, bleep ‘Four One’.  ‘Yes, Four One’.  The girl is able to tell you herself.  She is mute but can understand.  Follow her finger.  The driver’s jaw locked into his mouth.  He whispered to the woman ‘Sorry I can’t read’.  The woman shook his hand telling him that she understands.   

I use Dragon Software also.  I speak into a microphone and it types everything you say.  On the down side, when using Dragon, when you are writing a letter or preparing an email, you have to pause to think about what you are writing or saying . It picks up on any pauses etc and sometimes it can shut down because it thinks you are finished.  It’s better suited when you already have something written out in front of you so that you don’t have to think about it.  I would definitely recommend the on-screen keyboard.  It works really well for me.

Other types of AT that I use at the moment include a ‘zapper’ to open/close gates at my home.  I also wear a personal alarm around my neck.  If anything happens to me, I can press that and it will activate the house alarm.  It gives me great peace of mind. 

Enable Ireland, in partnership with DIT launched their Community Design Challenge in Microsoft in December. This year's competition was open to all students nationally and internationally and is sponsored by Leckey, a company which specialises in designing and manufacturing specialist seating and postural management devices for children with disabilities.

Leckey asked entrants to imagine how you could adapt, improve, integrate or augment their products to make them fun for the user, and as a consequence help remove the stigma of disability. Keeping in mind their mission and vision to create a design, picture, code, prototype or description of a new product Leckey could design..........

After months of collaboration between students from DIT, Purdue University in the USA and expert AT users from Enable Ireland and NCBI, we are delighted to announce that the winners of the 2015 Community Design Challenge are as follows:-

Judges' Choice Award:  'Bus Buddy'

Team Members:  Christina McCarthy, Kaitlyn Mast and Evan Markley (Purdue University, USA)


Users' Choice Award:  'Happy Openings'

Team Members:  Shelly Gaynor, Amy Sexton, Kelly McGuinness and Olivia Holbrook (Dublin Institute of Technology)


A BIG CONGRATULATIONS to the members of the winning teams!

We would like to thank all participants for their commitment and participation in this year's Community Design Challenge.  The entries offered potential solutions to real life challenges which were both creative and practical.

Plans are now underway for the Awards Ceremony which will take place on 30th September in Microsoft.

We look forward to building on this year's competition and to the potential development of some of the produce concepts to prototype stage, with the support of Dublin Institute of Technology and Purdue University in the US.

Please scroll through the images below.............

Are you interested in keeping up-to-date with new technologies that assist independent living, communication, literacy support, mobility or even leisure activities?

ATandMe http://www.atandme.com/ aims to raise awareness about various technologies and resources that are available.  There are new posts every week on the ATandMe blog that will help you learn and share about new ideas and resources.  A podcast section allows you to hear interviews from various contributors of assistive technology and the App section of the site will inform you about various apps that may provide an assistive technology solution.  Discussion is open to anyone with an interest, so please read, learn, and contribute.

Some of the latest posts include:

The Flipmouse, which is one of the outcomes of the AsteRICS project. 

The Universal Design Living Laboratory which is a really interesting home or project located in a suburb of Ohio, USA. 

Amazon Echo is a voice command device from Amazon.com with functions including question answering, playing music and controlling smart devices. 


If you have made any interesting discoveries in AT recently which you feel might be of interest to others, or indeed have any questions for us, why not contribute to our blog?  We'd love your input!  http://www.atandme.com/