Table of contents
1 Ask the expert
2 Business commentary
3 From the soap box
4 The reader’s choice
5 News and views
6 Helpful tips
7 Accessibility news
8 Editorial
9 Comments to the editor
10 Notes
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the following contributors to this month’s STAE issue.
The Sterling Creations accessibility team, the Sterling Creations business team, the Sterling Creations research team, Scott Savoy our managing editor, Christian Robicheau our assistant editor, our readers, and Donna J Jodhan our president.
Donna J Jodhan is the founder and president of Sterling Creations which was founded in 1994. As a blind woman she has had to overcome mountainous challenges in order to get where she is today. She is a very successful business woman, consultant, and author and she continues to help produce daily blogs that contain weekly features on topics of interest and relevance. She is never tired, always willing to help others, and never gives up when it comes to helping others to voice their opinions. As she puts it: "My undying commitment is to ensure that the kids of tomorrow have a more level playing field when it comes to such things as employment opportunities, equal access to the Internet and technology. I think that if I can do my little part to help someone else succeed then in turn they will help others."
We are all very proud to be part of the Sterling Creations team but above all, we are pleased and delighted to have Donna J Jodhan as our leader.
Message from the president
Hello there and a very warm welcome to this month’s issue of STAE. I would like to personally thank all of our readers out there for their continuing loyalty and support. Your feed back means the world to us because without it we would be lost. I would also like to express my gratitude to the hardworking team at Sterling Creations for their A1 effort in helping to make this magazine possible.
All of our teams work extremely hard to bring you tidbits and articles each month that are interesting, newsworthy, and exciting. We strive to keep you informed of the latest news and breakthroughs in the fields of business, health, and technology as they pertain to persons with special needs and we always appreciate your feedback because it is only through you that we can hope to get better.
I hope that you continue to enjoy our magazine and invite you to read our latest newsletter. To obtain a free electronic copy please email us at info@sterlingcreations.ca.
Finally, I’d like to invite you to visit our newest sister website, www.onestopbookcafe.com and there you’’ll find oodles of tips on a wide range of topics, a wide selection of books that will enable you to spend less and save more, and coming soon will be a collection of e books written by me. These books are designed to help you gather info that will enable you to enrich your daily lives. At www.onestopbookcafe.com, the goal is to motivate you to follow your dreams.
You will also be able to make your own contribution free of charge to our Café Talk page. I hope you enjoy this month’s magazine.
Ask the expert
Video games' new frontier: The visually impaired (features AudiOdyssey)
March 2008
By the Sterling Creations accessibility team
Hello there! Spring is just about here and this month we’d like to address a question that many young blind and visually impaired readers have been asking us in the past year. Are there any video games for the blind?
The answer is yes. There are many games that you can find on the Internet for blind and visually impaired game players. There are racing car games, chess games, and now the frontier of video games has been broken. This month we’d like to share an article with you that speaks to this very topic. Hope you find our selection of interest and value.
CNN
Video games' new frontier: The visually impaired (features AudiOdyssey)
By Steve Mollman
New interactive music video game developed for visually impaired; Nintendo Wii's Wiimote controller or keyboard used to play; Developers hope game will also be played online by mainstream players
(CNN) -- Forget shoot-em-up addicts -- video games are reaching out to the rest of us.
The greatest symbol of this is the Wii console from Nintendo. Its innovative wireless control -- the Wiimote -- has even non-gamers excited as they swing it through the air to control, say, a tennis racket on the screen.
Wii's Wiimote may play a pivotal role in bringing the visually impaired into the electronic gaming fold.
But not quite everyone has been reached. One group is still largely ignored by video game makers: the blind.
With that in mind, a team of researchers at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab in Massachusetts set out this summer to make a music-based video game that's designed for mainstream players and also accessible to the blind.
Appropriately, perhaps, they incorporated the Wiimote into the game-play, though it's optional.
The resulting DJ game, designed for the PC, is called AudiOdyssey. In it, players try to lay down different tracks in a song by swinging and waving the Wiimote in time with the beats. Or they can just use keyboard controls.
The game reminded this writer of my lack of any rhythm whatsoever. I used the keyboard version, where you're instructed to follow the beat by hitting an arrow key. Miss a beat and you get an ugly sound. Things sounded pretty ugly. But I did start to get a little better after 15 minutes and was awarded occasionally by crowd cheers. It's a fun game. And I got a kick out of it.
So did 41-year-old Alicia Verlager. For her, though, the fun is a bit more significant. She's visually impaired.
"Play is one of the ways in which people build relationships," she notes. "It's fun to take on the challenge of a game and take turns encouraging and laughing at each other's sillier mistakes. That's the experience I am really craving in a game -- the social aspects."
AudiOdyssey is presently single-player only, and there's no scoring system. But a multiplayer online version will be released in a few months. Intriguingly, players in this version won't necessarily know whether their opponent is blind -- and it won't make a difference in the game.
"Ideally, they shouldn't even know that it is designed with the visually impaired in mind, since we want to make a 'mainstream' game," says Eitan Glinert, a 25-year-old grad student at GAMBIT and the lead researcher on AudiOdyssey, which is his thesis.
That said, "after they find out that the game is designed to be accessible, it increases awareness," he adds.
Though using the Wiimote isn't necessary, Glinert believes it's a more fun and expressive option. From a development standpoint, getting the Wiimote to work with a PC game (it's meant to be used only with Nintendo's Wii) was a considerable engineering challenge.
And players who want to use the device will have to do a little extra work, as well, including linking a Wiimote to a PC wirelessly via Bluetooth signal (instructions on how to do this are included with the game).
Verlager believes AudiOdyssey's use of the Wiimote makes it unique among accessible games. It's also, as far as she knows, the first accessible music game for blind players. A startup called All inPlay offers online games, including poker, designed to allow play between blind and sighted users.
For Verlager, it's important that games be mainstream and inclusive -- rather than "special" and for blind players.
"I really get frustrated with the way blind people are portrayed as if they live in isolation from the rest of the world and have no sighted family or friends," she says.
Media, which includes video games, "is something people share and participate in together, a way of building relationships and exploring feelings and attitudes about real life," she says.
For now, AudiOdyssey is an "early concept prototype," says Glinert. But "ultimately, we'd love to bring the game to consoles," he adds. "If we get the chance we'll definitely move quickly on that."
The current version of AudiOdyssey is available for free at the GAMBIT Game Lab Web site.
More Canadians working late in life
March 2008
By the Sterling Creations business team
Hey there! It’s almost springtime and we want to share an article with you that may be contrary to what many experts are telling us. Many experts are saying that more and more baby boomers are retiring earlier. However, the following article contradicts this. Enjoy!
Increasing number of Canadians working later in life, survey finds; Changing
attitude to aging big reason older people stay in workforce
Shannon Proudfoot
Ottawa Citizen
Canadians are working later in life and that may cushion a potential labour
shortage when baby boomers start to retire, a report shows.
An estimated 2.1 million people age 55 to 64 were employed or looking for
jobs in 2006 -- double the number who were working 30 years before,
according to a study released yesterday by Statistics Canada. Most of their
jobs were in the service sector and the vast majority worked full time.
Older workers made up 12 per cent of the Canadian labour force last year,
while they comprised 10 per cent in 1976. That reflects an aging population
and the fact that more people are working later.
"It's not only more older people -- it's not the same older person as it was
before," says David Cravit, 62, senior vice-president of marketing for the
50Plus Group, the largest Internet portal for baby boomers and seniors in
the country. ''I look and act and think 15 years younger than my
chronological age. I'm not here to be sitting in a rocking chair playing
cribbage for five years waiting for the axe to fall."
Three-quarters (76 per cent) of men age 55 to 59 either had a job or were
looking for one last year, as were 62 per cent of women. In the 60 to 64
group, 53 per cent of men were still in the work force and a record-high 37
per cent of women were in the same situation. The data came from the Labour
Force Survey.
Baby boomers' strong attachment to work, increased education -- especially
among women -- and the near-elimination of mandatory retirement at 65 are
expected to keep more older workers on the job in the future.
"Employment is an important form of validation for this generation. Remember
that the 60-year-olds of today were the yuppies of the 1970s," says Mr.
Cravit.
The financial responsibilities of caring for aging parents or grown children
who haven't flown the nest may also be pushing the "sandwich generation" to
work longer, he adds.
Others may work to finance luxuries their pensions don't cover, Mr. Cravit
says, citing his favourite example of a Calgary man in his 80s who works
part time at a Tim Hortons outlet so he can spend three months in Mexico
each year.
Although his employer recently scrapped mandatory retirement, 60-year-old
University of British Columbia professor David Sanderson plans to leave the
workforce in five years.
That will give him and his wife the financial means and the time to enjoy
their retirement years, he says, even though he's not ready for it quite
yet.
"I love my job, but I like doing things with my wife, travelling, restoring
cars, running, those kinds of things," Mr. Sanderson says.
David Patchell-Evans, founder of GoodLife Fitness Clubs, is about to turn 54
and doesn't foresee himself retiring in the next decade.
He has a good role-model in his 87-year-old mother, who still works for the
company full time, attending every meeting and scrutinizing the balance
sheets.
"Most people still want to get young, we don't want to get old," he says.
"And old is a very relative thing. I'm convinced it's not a state of age,
it's a state of attitude."
From the soap box
Chances instead of charity in Bulgaria
March 2008
By Scott Savoy
Hello! The birds are getting ready to sing for their food and the flowers are waiting to come out. So, in keeping with this mood, I’d like to share a very uplifting article with you. I chose this article because of the hope and motivation that it exudes.
Sofia Echo, Bulgaria
Chances instead of charity in Bulgaria
By Boriana Parvanova
Habitat for Humanity Sofia
This is a story of two sight-impared individuals, their daughters, one renovation and a rare, unbridled enthusiasm for life, despite a series of difficult choices and challenges.
I first met the Yanevi family when they applied to the home renovation programme of my organisation, Habitat for Humanity Bulgaria, or Podslon za Chovechestvoto Foundation, which provides support to improve the living conditions of financially challenged families. Beneficiaries then pay back this interest-free loan in small installments over three to five years.
In 2007, Habitat, with an emphasis on energy efficiency, improved homes by altering the woodwork, improving wall insulation and enclosing terraces.
This family's story
Ivan and Roumyana met when attending one of the very few secondary schools for sight-disabled children in Bulgaria, after, at the age of six, Ivan lost his sight through a sporting accident and an unforgivable medical mistake. In addition to quality education, the school bestowed another dear present - his wife Roumyana. They couldn't wait for graduation and were married at 17. She comes from Koinare and he is from Pernik, but in search of opportunity, their joint destiny blew them into Sofia. When you witness their tenderness it is difficult to believe they've been together for 15 years.
When we visited the Sofia borough of Drouzhba for the first home-interview, Roumyana told me about their struggle to receive social housing. It took several years, many administrative offices and a lot of door-knocking to overcome the cumbersome bureaucratic procedure. They were happy to finally be placed, but a change in location was tough - especially for Ivan, who is 100 per cent sight impaired.
For him, moving meant a long process of learning a new commute by heart through recognising the curves in the pavement, memorising the sound of a particular traffic light and remembering where to cross the street. For nine months he needed assistance for every home departure. I had never imagined how only a poorly parked car could create unnecessary obstacles for sight-impared individuals.
When they moved in two years ago, the apartment was in extremely bad shape, so they began improving it little by little. Just when they were wondering how to finance the next renovation, a friend of theirs told them about Habitat for Humanity.
With Habitat's help, they decided to increase energy efficiency by improving the insulation on their terraces. The ugly self-made iron window frames, which let cold air and humidity inside, were removed. Now the balconies have become a shiny living space - with smooth white PVC window frames and colourful wall paper.
It would have been hard to repay an ordinary bank loan with Ivan's salary at the Ministry of Education and with Roumyana's student allowance. They felt fortunate to receive Habitat's help.
"We might have been able to do it ourselves, but not for a few years. And who knows whether we could have saved enough money for a house renovation," said Roumyana. "Habitat also helped us co-ordinate with a qualified and affordable construction company. They did a great job and were a vast improvement from our previous vendor."
Cosy and comfortable in their drawing room, I was curious to learn more about their life. Maybe I was asking too many questions but they didn't mind. Ivan became excited when the conversation turned to one of his favourite topics - the goal ball club. This game is specially designed for sight-impared people and Ivan is proud president of the Sofia chapter. He divides time between his biggest interests - family, sport and history.
"Goal ball is the number one for me," says Ivan, immediately adding "of course only after my family".
How they became
With a dream to become a lawyer, Ivan applied to law school with excellent marks. However, without connections, he was not accepted. Disappointed but determined, he joined the history department, where he eventually earned his PhD in history sciences and is now passionate about this subject. He has more than 500 books, which he scans in order to read.
Roumyana graduated with a degree in economics, and is now continuing her education, but along a different path: she is following a dream to study pedagogy for sight-impared people. The rest of her time is devoted to their family, and especially to their two daughters Anita and Viktoria. She seems like a wonderful and affectionate mother, demanding respect, but with a soft touch. A caring housewife, she is thankful for the latest home improvement.
The new window frames not only keep out the weather, but also isolate from noise. She jokes that now they hear the neighbours through the walls rather than through the windows.
When I visited a second time, I saw that Habitat's renovations were not the only new addition to their home. A furry friend met me at the door: Ivan has a new companion - a seeing-eye dog, Vita. Although a bit perplexed about how to behave with her, he is positive she will help him gain more independance and security on the street.
When talking about their life, Roumyana insists that their sight disability has nothing to do with their capacity for success and happiness. "What you want to achieve in life - it's a question of character," she says.
Ivan explained his understanding for life this way: "Don't give a person a fish, but teach him how to catch one himself." They don't like asking for charity but would like to be given chances. I was pleased to hear that, because Habitat's principle, to provide a hand up instead of a handout, stems from the same idea.
As I was leaving, Roumyana asked me not to describe them as heroes or to exaggerate their story. I didn't exaggerate but I cannot help thinking about them as extra-ordinary people. Not just because they are a sight-impared couple managing to live a normal life, but because of the rare love and optimism that seems to surround them like an aura. Not many families can say the same.
Boriana Parvanova is project co-ordinator for Habitat for Humanity Sofia. For more information about the organisation, go to www.habitat-sofia.org.
Habitat for Humanity Sofia or Podslon za Chovechestvoto Foundation, founded in 2001, is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to alleviate housing problems of economically disadvantaged families through volunteer-powered construction and renovation. By providing interest-free loans, Habitat Sofia provides a hand up instead of a hand-out. Since 2001, more than 20 families have benefited from its programmes, among them single mothers, sight-impared people and pensioners. In 2005, Habitat Sofia completed its first project, an eight-family home in the Slatina borough. Since then, it has focused on renovation and repair. It is now developing new projects to help us achieve a greater scope of influence.
At an international level, Habitat for Humanity Sofia is part of Habitat for Humanity International, an organisation that, through the help of former presidents, celebrities, professional athletes and community volunteers, has provided hundreds of thousands of homes to needy people all over the world.
Habitat for Humanity Sofia operates its programmes with the help of donations and grants. If you wish to donate:
Blind couple's answering service has got your number
March 2008
Contributed by Melissa Dryden of Savanna Georgia
Dear readers,
I’m always delighted to publicize the successes of blind and visually impaired entrepreneurs. It’s a topic that’s very close to my heart as I myself am a blind business owner and I know only too well the challenges that we as blind business persons face daily.
Savannah Now, GA, USA
Blind couple's answering service has got your number
By Robin WRIGHT Gunn
Thursday, September 6, 2007 at 12:30 am
Ever called a Savannah physician after office hours? Chances are good that Donna or Robert Culver took the message and forwarded it to the doctor.
The Culvers' business, Chatham Answering Service, has provided off-hours telephone answering for 19 years for hundreds of physicians, real estate agents and other businesses
Yet few of the thousands of patients, clients or office staff who interact with the Culvers are aware that their message-takers are slightly different from most answering services.
Both Donna and Robert are legally blind.
"My staff didn't know they were blind in the beginning," said Dr. Michael Zoller, a physician with Ear, Nose and Throat Associates who's been a client of Chatham Answering Service for more than 15 years. "The first time they came in with the (leader) dog they were shocked."
The couple met in the 1960s as students at the Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon and married after Robert graduated from the University of Georgia in 1976. They raised their two sons and have two grandsons.
Lifelong activists for people with blindness, the couple is active at Washington Avenue Christian Church, where Robert is associate minister and Donna plays the organ.
"I was born totally blind," said Robert, 55. "I received (my) sight back after four cataract surgeries" before age 6. "I'm legally blind, but I am losing it again."
Donna, 54, lost most of her sight at age 3 days when she was given oxygen after being born four months premature. She lost all her sight in 1987.
Donna founded Chatham Answering Service in 1988.
"I had two line telephones. They had different rings to them so I knew who I was answering for," she says. "I had a Braille typewriter; it looks similar to a typewriter. That was all I had other than notebooks.
"I was pretty fortunate. When the lights went out ... I could work in the dark."
After almost three years of Donna working solo, with Robert helping out on nights and weekends, the couple decided it was time for Robert to leave his career as a horticulturist with Oelschig Nursery Inc. to help manage the growth of the answering service.
"I said, 'It's time to cry uncle.' I'm trying to raise two boys at the same time. I cannot keep a house, raise two children, run the business and not have Robert here, too," Donna said.
Chatham Answering Service operates out of the Culvers' eastside home, assisting 158 doctors and about 30 other businesses. Currently, the company employs six people in addition to the Culvers.
Their first employee was a close friend who was also blind.
"We try to hire blind people first," said Donna. "Then if we can't, we hire most of our people from Savannah State and Armstrong. We want to help them pay their way through school."
Over the years, they've had between 17 and 20 employees, of which four were blind.
"Technology has driven us nuts," Robert said. "We have had to learn and learn and learn again. Text messaging, alpha messaging, e-mail. We had to learn all of that stuff. But the sighted people did too, didn't they?
"We have talk software on both cell phones. Can you imagine? Blind people with camera phones!"
Voice activation, sound indicators and Braille computers are technological enhancements that aid the Culvers in their work and home life. Without warning, buzzers and bells sound off in different spots in their home and in the office behind their house.
"Everything ring-dings and sings around here," said Donna.
As the answering business has transitioned from relying on land lines to using pagers, then radios and then to cell phones, each technology revolution brings adjustments in how the Culvers interact with clients.
"One doctor may want to be paged; one wants to be called at home; the next wants to be called on the cell phone. It makes it more complex," said Robert.
For Zoller, what sets the Culvers apart is their personal service and commitment to their clients.
"Their business has become enormous because they are so popular," he said.
"If they can't reach you, they have numbers to call you at the gym or at a friend's. It's not just the mechanics of calling the doctor on the beeper
"They know a lot of my patients from 15 or 20 years and that makes a big difference, too.
"Nowadays everything is so cold and distant. So many times (the service) is a hook-up so it goes out of town. I like the local person who really knows the community."
Robert and Donna Culver met in the 1960s as students at the Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon, and married after Robert graduated from University of Georgia in 1976.
Artificial cornea is both strong and clear
March 2008
By Christian Robicheau
Hi everyone! Hope all is well with our readers. This month I’ve chosen a medical related article that some of you with cornea related problems may find of value. Please read on!
TECHNOLOGY: FEATURE. p28
NS070825
#34 Artificial cornea is both strong and clear; Ten million
people worldwide suffer from corneal blindness, but
until now there has not been an artificial implant with
just the right combination of properties
Aria Pearson
AN ARTIFICIAL cornea has been created that is as strong and clear
as the real thing. It could allow millions of people with damaged
corneas to see.
Corneal blindness can be caused by disease, injury or infection of
the eye's clear surface. It can be cured with a transplant from a
human donor, but donors are scarce. The World Health Organization
estimates that 10 million people worldwide are blind because of
defective corneas, yet only 100,000 receive transplants each year.
Artificial corneas made from flexible hydrogels - polymers that
absorb water - are now available, but they are not permeable
enough to support epithelial cells on their surface. These cells
guard against bacteria and stop natural corneas becoming cloudy,
by preventing proteins from sticking to them. Adding more water
to the hydrogels allows glucose to diffuse through them and
nourish epithelial cells on the surface, but it also weakens
them. So there is a push to develop a synthetic cornea that is
both strong and permeable. "The long-term goal is an
off-the-shelf cornea that looks and acts like donor tissue," says
Heather Sheardown of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Now Curtis Frank and colleagues at Stanford University in
California have done just that. They took polyacrylic acid, the
water-absorbing polymer found in diapers, and cross-linked it
with polyethylene glycol, which also absorbs water. The
cross-links mean that the resulting material is 20 times stronger
than either of the starting polymers on their own, and about the
same strength as a human cornea. Crucially it also has the same
water content as a real cornea, which greatly increases its
ability to transport nutrients to the epithelial cells.
After forming the material, which was presented at the American
Chemical Society meeting in Boston on 20 August, into a
6-millimetre-wide disc , the researchers implanted it in rabbits.
They found that glucose from the eye diffused through the
material and fed the epithelial cells growing on the surface,
which had been modified with collagen to promote cell growth.
Sheardown is also developing a cornea made from two intertwined
polymers. But it does not transport glucose as readily as Frank's
and she has not yet tested it on animals.
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information, UK, a division of Reed Elsevier
Inc.Al
Helpful tips
March 2008
By the Sterling Creations research team
Hello there! It’s time for our monthly tips so sit back and enjoy.
Helpful tips for March:
What's this about the value of beer?
First, you can use flat beer to clean your gold jewelry.
Second, you can use flat beer to clean your furniture.
Third, you can cook with beer.
Crazy you say? Not really.
What's this about the good old thermostat?
According to a recent survey, employees identified the thermostat as one of the main causes of contention at work.
Other sources of contention as identified in this survey included:
Outdated furniture and dirty washrooms.
What's this about eating a good breakfast each morning?
Eating breakfast prevents the mid-morning munchies.
If you don’t have time before you go to work, eat breakfast at your desk.
This according to a U.K newspaper.
How long should you keep credit card bills that you've already paid?
The experts say no more than a year.
If you've already paid your credit card bill, then there's really no need to keep it for more than a year.
Want to know how you can preserve the blades of your ice skates?
Each time you use them be sure to wipe the blades dry before putting them away.
If you put them away while the blades are still wet then they will get rusty quickly.
Looking for a quick and easy way to cool off those hot mugs or cups of hot coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?
Place a spoon in your cup or mug and presto! It works.
The spoon will absorb the heat and cool the liquid in your cop or mug.
It also works for bowls of hot soup or stew.
What are the differences between gas water heaters and electric water heaters?
The gas water heater is cheaper.
It is more environmental friendly.
It heats up water faster than its electric counterpart.
Ever wanted to know which gives out more sugar when it comes to raw or cooked carrots?
Cooked carrots wins the race hands down.
Diabetics are cautioned to eat raw carrots over cooked carrots.
Want to know some interesting tips about when not to go shopping?
According to a recent study conducted by Harvard, Stanford, and others:
You should stay away from shopping when you're bored, sad, or have the blues.
According to this study, these are the times when you tend to buy things that you really don't need or want.
Your judgment is most clouded at this time.
Mushrooms now to be known as having lots of nutritional value?
Yes! According to the health experts, mushrooms are good for you because they contain lots of vitamin D.
So, start eating more mushrooms.
What's this about eating your fruits peal included?
According to the experts, if you peal your fruits before eating them, you destroy most of the nutritional value.
So, when next you eat an apple, a peach, a pear, and other similar types of fruits, remember not to take the peal off.
This also applies to cucumbers, bell peppers, carrots, strawberries, etc.
Did you know that most traffic accidents are caused by fatigue?
Yes, and most of them occur on Fridays between the hours of 3 and 6 pm.
Apparently, most traffic accidents are caused by drivers either falling asleep at the wheel or just too tired to focus on driving.
Accessibility news
Design Student Creates Innovative Guiding Cane For Blind
March 2008
By the Sterling Creations research team
We’re back again and this month we bring you news on a very exciting innovation! Please read on.
Wired.com News
Design Student Creates Innovative Guiding Cane For Blind
By Jose Fermoso
September 24, 2007 | 5:38:30 PM
Are seeing eye dogs about to be replaced by the inventive new design of a student from Germany? If the Internation Design Excellence Awards are any indication of the aid-gadget future, this might prove to be true, but not without some howling from our furry friends. Sebastian Ritzler, of the Muthesius Academy of Art and Design in Kiel, Germany, created an interactive guiding system for the blind called Mygo that comes in the form of a cool, rolling white cane. Some would go so far as to call the design 'flashy pimptastic.'
The cane is supposed to be tough, height-adjustable for men and women, and waterproof. But here's the best part: It includes a system with a smart sensor and camera combo that can measure the ground area accurately in real time and pushes auditory feedback to a headset. In addition, the mini wheel at the tip of the cane has a hub motor that provides intuitive feedback through the grip, doubling as a steering engine that can last about 6 hours on a lithium-ion battery.
All this would give people an excellent maneuvering system, especially during difficult weather. So this one could replace the regular old cane that a few blind people use, but can it move into the seeing eye canine's territory? There are many reasons why the cane couldn't fully replace the dogs but there's a really important one: Mainly, the cane won't hug you back or lick you silly. The positive social affect of a kind service dog is likely way too important in the lives of many in the blind community.
While the device has not yet gone to production, the creator is looking at an affordable option - one estimate thrown around is about 150 Euros (about $200). The IDEA site lists a super -cheap option of about 15 Euros, but for the technology this item's going to be packing, that's probably a bit unrealistic.
I've been in business for myself now for over 14 years and I must say that it has been for the most part extremely gratifying. Previous to this I worked at two major Canadian banks and IBM Canada. Those experiences were also very gratifying but in all honesty, having and running my own little company has been the best for me.
Life is a blind business woman is very challenging at times. Some times I am treated equally, some times not. Often times I am given a rough ride because of my blindness and many times I am given a rougher time because I'm a woman.
One of the most frequent questions I'm asked is this: Do you feel that women are harder on women or that women are easier on women? I've been giving this a lot of thought and this is a difficult question to answer. My opinion is that in the normal scheme of things, women try to be easy on women, but every now and then and maybe a bit too often, women are harder on women and some times even dare to admit that they'd rather deal with men rather than their fellow women.
Whenever I've had the chance to ask various women why is it that they choose to be harder on women than on men, their most common answers are:
Women don't make good managers.
Women don't have the time to commit fully to anything because their family comes first.
Women cannot commit fully to anything because they are the main care givers of the family.
Women are unable to commit to full time jobs because when they become pregnant they need to go off on maternity leave and this results in them being away from the office for extended periods of time each time they become pregnant.
Women managers are much more moody and temperamental than their male counterparts.
I've had both male and female managers throughout my corporate career and I've also had to deal with both sexes in various capacities as a small business owner. I've seen lots but at the end of the day I truly believe that the only way for us women to survive both as business professionals and as persons, are for us to stick together. No, I'm not a feminist by any means and I'm not a card carrying member of any women's groups but I believe that in order to survive us women need to stick together more closely.
For who to understand us better than our very own woman folk? Who to understand the trials and tribulations that we face on a daily basis than ourselves? Who better to stand up for us than we ourselves?
Just my humble opinion.
Comments to the editor
March 2008
From the desk of the editor
Hello there! Hare are this month’s submissions.
From Liza Yu of Hong Kong:
This magazine has many of articles of interest each month. I like the variety but am wondering if there could be more topics on disabled women?
Is this possible?
From Luke Santana of Miami:
I'd like to see more sports articles. Someone commented a few months ago that blind persons play sports and so this magazine should try to print more articles about blind sports.
From Jay Mikros of Montreal Canada:
So, what's the CNIB up to these days? Still hiding behind the skirts of others? Still saying that they don't have any money to provide us with services? How long are these excuses going to go on?
From Tina Farrell of Liverpool England:
I'd like Donna to do more for the development of blind business persons. It seems that self employment is a very good way for blind persons to help themselves. I'm blind and I just started my own business. I have my brother as my assistant. He's sighted and we have a limousine service.
Wish us luck!
From Rose Green of Kent England:
Dear Donna,
I'm very proud of your accomplishments. I marvel at your energy and motivation. I think that you are an inspiration for others. I'm sighted and I don't think that I could do what you've done.
From Peter Renfuse of New York:
We need to find more models for our kids. Like Donna J Jodhan. This lady is really on the ball.
On another note: What's been done to reduce unemployment among special needs persons? This is a global problem and needs a serious effort.
If you'd like to submit your comments to us then please do so by sending your emails to info@sterlingcreations.ca. All submissions are screened to ensure appropriate language is used.
Notes
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