Forums » Smalltalk » AMA: completely blind // cancer survivor

hi... I spent some time debating on whether or not to post this... evidently I decided to go for it. but, anonymously so most people can't tell who this is.
anyway, yeah. I've been completely blind for most of my life, after both eyes were removed due to the presence of tumours. not really sure what else to put in this main post, but feel free to ask questions. any questions. I don't mind.

Thank you for opening yourself to sharing! It's an interesting topic although I'm sure it's sensitive. That must have been a really hard road to walk.

Firstly, did you have to go to a specific school because of your blindness, or were you homeschooled?
Do you have any advice for someone going through something similar?
Also, how do you type/receive messages online, like these?
I hope that wasn't too many questions. Thank you! Kudos, dude/dudette!

no worries, those aren't too many questions! I'll answer them as best as I can!
#1. I've actualy gone to public school all my life. of course, I've needed adaptions and adjustments (braille books/textbooks, transcription of certain work, guidance around unfamiliar areas, etc), but for the most part my ways of doing things/the things I'm able to do aren't that much different from those of my peers.
#2. I'm not the best at giving advice, but I think it's important for people to be willing to accept help when they need it, and not to be embarrassed by the things they struggle to do. but on the other hand, it's also important to stay independent whenever possible, and not rely too much on others. also, to stand up for yourself when people think you're incapable of doing something... it's pretty disheartening when people make assumptions about what I can or cannot do based solely on my blindness.
#3. personally, I have a device that connects to my phone via Bluetooth, which has a braille display that allows me to read whatever text is on-screen. it also has a braille keyboard, allowing me to type. some people rely completely on text-to-speech programs (screenreaders) but honestly those can be very inconvenient, especially when reading or writing long posts.

Did you get into roleplaying online before or after the surgery? Also kudos to you for being able to stick it out with online text roleplay for as long as you may have

Ah, that's very cool! Thank you very much.

well, the surgery happened when I was an infant, and the online roleplaying started when I was 12-13... so y'know... I'd say the surgery came a liiiittle bit earlier

!!! What is the name of this magical braille bluetooth device??? How well/poorly does it work with the RPR?

the device is called a Braille Note (mine, which is quite outdated, but still works very well for what I need it to do, is called a Braille Note Apex; I have access to it because of school and there is also a much newer model that I've rarely gotten to use and thus can't comment on much). and it works VERY well with RPR! in fact this is one of the most accessible sites I've ever used - for anything. any noteworthy complaints I could have had about that were cleared up in last year's RPR rebuild thingy. in fact the only thing I can think of right now is that the button to remove oneself from an inbox conversation isn't labeled, instead just showing up as a bulletpoint (standard for icons and such that can't be expressed in other ways). that's also the case for the thing on character profiles that you can click to reveal page navigation, as well as the one to open the toolbar (I think it's called the toolbar? the one where you can select 'edit character', 'connect to character', etc)

I will review those issues tomorrow and see if there's anything I can do to aid in making them more accessible. Thank you so much for this!