Technology, gadgets and Moebius syndrome

I love tech stuff.  I grew up always with computers in the house – having a computer programmer for a father is quite convenient in that regard – and have really embraced the way technology makes things easier for me with things that are a bit more difficult due to having Moebius.

While there’s nothing I truly need (well, except the fancy Google self-driving car!) technologically, it does make life easier sometimes.

I’m a big fan of my smartphone. Sadly enough, it’s a good thing I started traveling a lot after I got it.  Maps are a great thing when you can’t see street signs!  I’m lucky that my close-up vision is mostly decent, so I don’t have too much of a difficult time seeing it.  I was happy, however, that my new phone is just a tiny bit larger than my previous screen.

My i Phone 3S from 2009 completely and utterly died a few weeks ago.  It decided it didn’t like any cellular networks whatsoever, and was not going to cooperate. At all.  Ironically enough, it was great timing as I was able to upgrade to a 5.  Now I’m not totally fixated on getting the newest/greatest/etc, but the larger screen and lightness of the 5 made it more appealing to me than the 4S.

With the new phone, I get to play around with Siri! And I have to say that the software is pretty good:

I actually usually don’t have that much of an issue using automated voice-recognition systems, so I was assuming it would work for me – but it’s nice to have confirmation of that!  It’s helpful for me because sometimes my vision is worse than others, and it takes me awhile to navigate through the screens to search. It’s much faster to say it, and I think the display is easier to read, too.

There are also a bunch of other accessibility features on my phone, many of which I don’t need.  I did increase the font, but otherwise haven’t explored these features.

And that’s not even getting me started on how much better I think my tablet is than a laptop computer! I like desktops because you can get a massive monitor and stick your nose super-close to it (and look absolutely ridiculous doing it…) but my laptop was starting to bug me simply because I couldn’t see it. Much less carry it around.  So, for an on-the-go computer-type-thing, I’m a fan. 

And I simply love e-books. Big fan of the back light, ability to zoom, and the ease of propping up the tablet and reading without ending up with aching fingers from holding a heavy book.  I would’ve loved that option in college and grad school!

So, those are just some of my perceptions as a technology-user with Moebius syndrome. Although I’m lucky in that I don’t need to rely on technology for anything essential, it certainly is fun to explore and use!