While technology becoming an increasingly large part of everyday life is often heralded as a positive step, for people who are blind and or have low vision it can often be the opposite.
While it may be convenient for many to access train and bus timetables or the weather forecast from an app on their smart device, accessibility issues can often mean that that people from the blind and low vision community can find themselves locked out rather than plugged in like the wider community.
As somebody who lives with low vision, Wollongong’s Keith Rutherford has experienced first-hand the issues that can come with inaccessible information, which is why he gives up his time each week to support Vision Australia clients to learn how to make the most out of the ever expanding world of apps.
“It’s great that you can pull out your smart phone and have all sorts of information there at your fingertips, but a lot of the time developers haven’t made their apps with blind and low vision people in mind,” Keith says.
Each week Keith, who lives with low vision due to Stargardt disease, volunteers at Vision Australia’s Wollongong office, working alongside an assistive technology specialist to help others from the blind and low vision community to make the most of what technology has to offer.
“What I do is download apps and use them and work out how they work and if there’s anything people can do to improve their accessibility,” he says.
“I’ll look at things like how well they work with things like the inbuilt voice over functions some devices have, if there’s changes that can be made in the settings or if zooming in on them can help with accessibility and then talk the others through it.”
Keith has been volunteering at Vision Australia for the past two years and he’s unlikely to end his involvement anytime soon.
“It’s something that I sort of fell into. I started to need some support with a few things and I thought I’d see if there was anything I could do to help other people in the same situation as me.
“It’s become something I really enjoy. Things like iPads and smart phones can make a difference in the lives of people who are vision impaired and it’s great to be able to help others get the most out of them help them improve their quality of life.”
Along with demonstrating how others who are blind or have low vision can better access apps, Keith also helps out with practical demonstrations.
“Sometimes we’ll go on a daytrip to a museum or somewhere that has an app that will audio describe what’s on display and we’ll give that a go. On the way there and back we’ll use one of the apps that has the timetable for whatever public transport we need.
“That’s the sorts of apps that we mainly focus on. The ones that can support people to be independent and be able to get out and do the things they enjoy the same as sighted people.”
For Aileen Muscat, who lives with severe low vision because of rod cone dystrophy, Keith’s time volunteering at Vision Australia has been a hug benefit. Aileen lives with only around 5% of vision and doesn’t see colour.
“It really makes a difference to have somebody there like Keith who also lives with low vision. It makes asking a question a lot easier as he knows from experience what you’re talking about and the best way to deal with the issue,” Aileen says.
“I definitely think I pick things up quicker with his help and he’s helped me with some things that have made a difference for me. Using the voiceover function on my iPad was a big one as well as how to best access the app that has the bus time tables on it,” she says.
Interested in volunteering at Vision Australia? To find out more head to our website or contact us on 1300 84 74 66 or at [email protected].