Starting to open back up.
This has been a trying couple of months for the travel industry. I had three trips cancelled due to the pandemic, I currently have more travel booked and I fear that it will also be cancelled. I am a mature adult and realize that this shutdown is not all about me, I find it sad that the whole situation has to be about politics rather than rallying together to protect the more vulnerable members of the population. Now, this blog is non-political so I am not going to bring my opinions into this situation, I am only going to reiterate that we needed to do this to save lives in the midst of a virus with no vaccine. That is the real point that many are overlooking. While we rush to reopen everything, we need to be fully cognoscenti of the fact that it doesn’t matter which side of the aisle you are on in terms of politics with the reopening, the fact remains that we don’t have a vaccine yet and if you are at higher risk for infection you need to be careful. So, how am I handling the situation?
We have been here before
After 9/11 the travel industry was rocked and scrambled to implement new stricter security standards, and guess what? we got used to it. Amid the reopening of travel industries like airlines, cruises and hotels, new measures are being put in place to ensure safety, and guess what? we will get used to it. The proposed changes include limiting passengers ability to gather in mass, hand sanitizing and washing everywhere and touch-less functionality wherever possible. Crews will be required to perform additional cleaning everywhere and I would bet at first that temperature checks will be in place to ensure nobody flies with a fever. Just like the days after 9/11, things will be different, and you will have to get used to the “new normal” but you will get used to it. Expect to be required to fly with a mask and perhaps gloves at first, but once the vaccine is available things will relax I am sure. Some are saying that there is a possibility that there might never be a vaccine, but I don’t subscribe to that thinking. We have over 100 vaccine trials underway worldwide as of this writing, the scientific communities of most of the world are working toward a common goal and I am confident that a vaccine will be finalized, whether it will be this year is hard to say. Remember though that there also teams working diligently to create a reliable course of treatment. With treatment, at least if you get it, you can likely get through the worst part of the virus and not be forced to endure being put on a ventilator.
I honestly have no issues flying with a mask on or gloves or whatever. It is an inconvenience, but the alternative is to not go on my trip. Generally, traveling is an inconvenience, it is really all about the destination. If I have to endure temperature checks and stand six feet from my fellow passengers to be able to get to my destination, then I see it as a necessary evil and part of our new normal. Things will always err on the side of safety and caution, then relax as time goes by. I remember the invasive feeling of having to take off my belt and shoes and completely empty my pockets before boarding a plane after 9/11. These days if I don’t have to take off my shoes it seems odd to me. We will get through this and we will adapt.
But what about me?
I had a month long trip to Alaska scheduled for August this year. I planned to explore Alaska for a week on each side of my two week long cruise on Princess Cruise Lines. About a week ago, I got the email informing me that all their cruises to Alaska have been cancelled for the year. This trip was on my bucket list for locations to visit, am I sad? well of course, but I will re-book eventually and get to go. The thing that I think about though is the impact to all the workers that rely on the cruise industry visiting Alaska. Princess operates a hotel complex and a transport infrastructure in Alaska including buses and trains. This means all of those workers are going to miss a whole season of work. The port shops and shore trips industry are also being impacted by the decision to cancel the Alaska cruises this year. I am going to be just fine, but I worry about all those that rely on the cruise industry as their source of income. This is true for every port around the world, and every hotel that has been affected by this global pandemic.
I also had a couple smaller trips scheduled which were cancelled, Las Vegas and Kentucky to travel the bourbon trail, both of which can be rescheduled at any time. I try to not think about my inability to go to the places I want to go, but rather how the travel industry as a whole is being affected by all of this. If you would like to read more about the changes in travel regulations coming up here is a good article I found.
I love to hear from my readers! follow me on Instagram and Twitter @nedskee and drop me a message letting me know how this pandemic has affected your travel plans and what you are doing to get through it.
My Photography site: http://www.tahquechi.com/
My Bodyscapes project: http://www.bodyscapes.photography/
My travel site: https://www.blindtravels.com/
Instagram and Twitter: @nedskee
Thank you Hadley School for the Blind!
A big thank you to Haldey school for the Blind for interviewing me about Amtrak travel with a guide dog. You can tune into Hadley’s Travel Talk at: https://www.hadley.edu/ I appeared on the April 23rd show and we talked about the whole process of Amtrak travel from start to finish. Train travel can be a lot of fun, and works well with a guide dog.
Thank you Accessible Media Inc!
A big thank you to Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) and show hosts Kelly and Company for interviewing me for their radio show. You can catch the replay of their shows via podcast at: https://www.ami.ca/category/kelly-and-company Thank you for letting me spread the word about this site!
Kelly and Company show on AMI
AMI Podcasts Link
Getting my first Guide Dog – recap
I love to hear from my readers, and one comment I get often centers around my Guide Dog Files blog posts, where I talk about the process of getting my first guide dog. Finding the next post among all the blog entries is difficult, so I have assembled them in one spot and given a little update now that my guide Fauna and I have been together for over a year. If you have any questions about my expieriences feel free to drop me a message here, on twitter or Instagram @nedskee
Three questions with a blind person #2
A big thank you to my readers for submitting the great questions via my Twitter! @nedskee Here is a link to my second Three questions with a blind person article. I love taking time to educate the fully sighted on day to day life of a blind or visually impaired person. This type of article is important, because it gives those who may be embarrassed about asking a question a forum. If you are a fully sighted person and have a question feel free to drop me a message here or on my Twitter and ask away, I will answewr it in a future installment of my article series.
Accessibility for the visually impaired amid Covid-19
My guide Dog Fauna and I ventured a trip to the store yesterday to pick up some much needed provisions (cookies for my son and oranges for me). We had only been in the store for a few minutes before some person was yelling at me for going the wrong way. This seemed odd to me because I have been in this store a million times and never knew about one-way traffic. Once we got home, I took a look at the news and apparently Colorado stores are implementing traffic signs on the ground of the store aisles to keep traffic flowing and more importantly maintaining the six-foot social distancing for everyone’s safety.
This is a great idea, because people are silly and don’t adhere to social distancing guidelines so signs reminding them of proper distancing etiquette is a positive thing. The problems arise when you can’t see the signs, and they seemingly appear out of nowhere overnight. If I could see traffic signs, I’d be driving a car instead of walking with a guide dog. I don’t know about you all, but I am a creature of habit, I expect things to be in a certain place and it is tough when they change things around on you. Last year when we won (?) the ability to sell pull-proof beer in the stores here in Colorado, the stores moved everything around to make room for the big beer aisle. This meant location changes for the normal items I went to the store for, as well as removing many of the brands I commonly bought to make room for the beer. These kinds of changes take time, and people need to be understanding about it. Especially for a guide who is used to traversing the grocery store in a certain pattern and stopping at specific locations for items.
This brings me to today’s article which focuses on accessibility for the blind and visually impaired and the Covid-19 virus. The article mentions the newly implemented signs for grocery stores, however, it seems as though other states have implemented the signs more accessible-friendly than Colorado has. The other big issue is the drive-thru Coronavirus testing facilities. What are you supposed to do as a blind person if you can’t drive a car? Finding a friend to drive you is usually an options, however I would not want to ask a friend to sit in the car for hours with me to wait and get a test. This defeats the purpose of social distancing and could potentially put a well-meaning friend’s health at risk if I did indeed have the virus.
It can be said that this same issue is present for fast food establishments. Right now, most of the fast food places here in Colorado are open to drive-thru traffic only. With no curbside pickup option available this is another difficult situation for those of us who are not able to drive a car. I totally get that these are unusual times and that the drive-thru option is available so that there is one way people can get the goods, but that doesn’t make it accessible to all. I am patient, and I understand that this virus thing hit us out of nowhere and that there were not solid contingency plans in place for an event like this. We are all figuring this new normal out together, but we need to make sure that our voice is heard and that services are accessible to all. Here is the article, I would love to hear your thoughts on ways businesses can make their services more accessible in these strange times.
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/apr/20/pandemic-steps-pose-difficulties-for-bl/
Hey! I love to hear from my readers! Feel free to contact me via my social media sites I would love to hear your thoughts on this or any of my other articles! If you follow me, I will happily follow you back.
My Photography site: http://www.tahquechi.com/
My Bodyscapes project: http://www.bodyscapes.photography/
My travel site: https://www.blindtravels.com/
Instagram and Twitter: @nedskee
Guide Dogs and social distancing
Guide dogs are trained to be working dogs, not pets. These dogs are ready to go until they retire. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused everyone to change their daily routine, people are staying home and guides are not working nearly as much as they used to. My guide Fauna is always ready to go. On a regular (non-Covid) day, we can go out to a restaurant for breakfast, do a short morning walk, go to the store, play in the backyard with her favorite toy in the whole world the Jolly Ball and then she still has more than enough energy to go out to dinner, hit Starbucks or go for an evening walk. We are really going all the time and the lockdown has impacted that greatly. We still walk every day, and play in the backyard, but her normal routine is certainly odd just like all the rest of us.
Today’s article talks about how The Seeing Eye, National Federation for the Blind and Guide Dogs for the Blind are dealing with the impacts to the changes in schedule for guide dogs, and how the pandemic is affecting blind and visually impaired people as a whole.
Misunderstood
In the article, the author cites someone who called into The Seeing Eye complaining about a guide dog team not practicing social distancing, and that the guide brushed up against her as they passed on the sidewalk. The operator at The Seeing Eye explained that the person was likely blind, and this seemed to cause a blinding flash of understanding for the caller. I can totally understand this, I have a tiny amount of vision, and have been told that I don’t “look blind” whatever that means. So, the first thing people always ask me is if my guide is in training. I always smile and tell them that she is my guide and keeps me from getting into trouble. This reaction to the comment always starts a conversation about Fauna and her role in my life, and I always explain the process that Guide Dogs for the Blind goes through when training a new guide dog. People always find that fascinating.
What can we do?
Be patient, be understanding and be human. Social distancing is important to keep us all safe, but realize that people with limited sight often have problems determining how far they are standing from you. This is also a good time to learn/realize that limited vision is very often an invisible disability. Not every blind person wears sunglasses, not every blind person “looks blind”, and not every blind person has a guide dog. Social distancing is important for everyone’s safety but so is understanding that some people have limitations especially in terms of vision.
Hey! I love to hear from my readers! Feel free to contact me via my social media sites I would love to hear your thoughts on this or any of my other articles! Follow me and I will happily follow you back!
My Photography site: http://www.tahquechi.com/
My Bodyscapes project: http://www.bodyscapes.photography/
My travel site: https://www.blindtravels.com/
Instagram and Twitter: @nedskee
Here is a link to my Guide’s favorite toy, the Jolly Ball.
Three questions with a blind person #1
Yesterday I was out walking with my guide dog and had someone ask me some questions about being blind. I thought it might make an interesting addition to my education section here on Blind Travels. Let me know what you think, and please drop me a message if you have questions you would like answered in a future edition of this new series.
5 apps that help the blind and visually impaired travel easier.
Flighthub overviews a few different apps that might make your travel life a bit easier.
Be My Eyes
Be My Eyes is an iOS and Android app that connects its users with a community of over 500,000 unpaid sighted aids. By using device cameras and speakers, blind and visually impaired people can communicate with helpers who in turn provide assistance. For example, one of the app’s users might ask, “I’m having trouble connecting my new sound system, can you help me?” The camera would then be aimed at the sound system. From there, a volunteer can guide the blind or visually impaired person until the setup is complete.
Blind Square
Blind Square syncs with the built-in GPS system of a user’s iPhone. Once connected, audio information is then relayed in real-time. As the app runs in the background, the current location, upcoming intersections, addresses and important landmarks are mentioned. Blind Square’s search function also allows the blind and visually impaired to find shops, restaurants and other establishments “near me”. It’s an essential travel tool.
KNFB Reader
Equipped with optical character recognition (OCR), the Kurzweil—National Federation for the Blind (KNFB) Reader is a powerful text recognition app. It features text-to-speech, text-to-Braille and text highlighting functions as well. It has won several technology awards for best assistive mobile application. Lastly, it can be used in multiple languages.
Look Tell Money Reader
As the name indicates, the Look Tell Money Reader does just that. With the help of this app, the blind and visually impaired can use their smart device cameras to read and determine the denomination of paper currency. An LED light function within the app helps users to effectively read money in low light settings as well.
Seeing AI
Designed by the Microsoft team, Seeing AI is a powerful application that rivals the KNFB Reader app in terms of functionality. However, unlike its counterpart (currently priced at 139.99), Seeing AI is completely free. It reads bar code, snippets and larger portions of text and can identify friends and family from within photos. Descriptions of the user’s immediate environment can also be provided through the app. New features that read currency, light levels, cursive and even colors have been added in recent updates.
Technology is changing the travel industry. The blind and visually impaired are one of many categories of travelers who stand to benefit. The above listed apps go the extra mile in terms of facilitating travel for those who sometimes need a little more assistance.
About FlightHub
FlightHub makes travel accessible, allowing more than 5 million people per year to visit new places and explore different cultures by offering the cheapest flight on worldwide destinations. This is achieved by investing heavily in both technology and people, ultimately streamlining and optimizing the customer experience. Visit flighthub.com to book online or call an agent at 1-800-900-1431 for 24/7 service. For inspiration on travel destinations, tips on budget travel, and the latest travel news, follow FlightHub on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
SOURCE FlightHub
Original Article:
FlightHub and JustFly provide insight into 5 apps that help the blind and visually impaired travel more easily.
Visually Impaired Students play curling
For some strange reason, whenever my sighted friends hear about adaptive technology for sporting events they are amazed. Curling while visually impaired makes total sense to me.