Technology truly is redefining what is possible for the disabled community. However, there always remains a barrier – cost. Often products designed for assistive purposes carry a substantial price tag. There are a number of reasons for this and I firmly believe the majority of these issues can be overcome through universal design.
For example, design a product with a universal approach and it has the possibility of longevity, improved functionality for all and scale. The great benefit of this is a reduced price tag, making it affordable and overcoming that greatest barrier of all – cost.
This made me assess what I would consider the most functional piece of technology I own from a price perspective. Thinking of this for a while the answer surprised even me. it is my Raspberry Pi 2, including the Pi, a case, power supply and SD card for storage the cost was around £50. This is incredibly low cost but what exactly does it offer me?
After all it isn’t the most accessible of products, as I run it headless and control it through a command line interface. But it just sits there stuffed down the back of my television quietly working at integrating all my other technology together.
It serves FLAC audio to my Sonos 5, a wonderfully accessible music player, it serves up my audio described content to my iPhone, iPad and Apple TV and it also serves as file storage for my iPad Pro. It truly does allow all my other accessible technology to work seamlessly, it is this little device that allows everything else to function.
Therefore, for its price point I class it as the most functional device in my house. It certainly couldn’t replace my iPhone or iPad, but those devices would not serve me so well without that cheap little Raspberry Pi.

A little over 4 years ago I decided on a career change. The idea – to study psychology and begin a career within the clinical realm. This was a great departure from my previous career in network management and was something I was greatly excited about.

Slightly earlier in the year I had silenced the thoughts of quitting climbing the half dome, by learning to run solo outdoors. This was in part thanks to RunKeeper as well as my ability to memorise the feeling underfoot.

So the week my son was born, I thought it a great idea to increase my training to the ultra distance as well as beginning college to start my new career. I managed to juggle training between feeds, work during Grayson sleeping and spending time with my son. I managed to juggle this to such success that I began competing at the ultra distance and left college with the highest grade possible.

Entering university I told myself I would continue to train and strive to attain a first. My idea of a clinical career fell to the wayside incredibly quickly, as soon as I saw artificial psychology (artificial intelligence) was a module choice, I quickly changed my choices to technology and business. This definitely worked out for the best, I love technology and I am always intrigued by the psychology of business. So with my degree tailored more twoards psychology and technology I pushed on. Multiple surgeries and training with my first guide dog took its toll on my ultra training, but I still managed to find time to compete at all distances, from 5k up to the ultra distance. The only thing missing was the marathon.

Entering my third and final year, life just wasn’t busy enough, so my wife and I had another son – Franklin. I now had two sons, the idea of a first, and training for long distance.

I worked incredibly hard in all areas of my life, and chose computational neuroscience as my dissertation and knuckled down. This involved learning a new programming language from someone sitting there and telling me the syntax, certainly not the easiest way to learn a language. Computational neuroscience is also not the most accessible topic. Therefore, I was especially pleased when I received my final mark, 4 points off the highest mark possible for my dissertation, easily securing me the first I had strived for.

With university coming to an end it was time to focus on the other areas of my life. As I work towards a return to technology. I aim to work for one of the large technology firms or a new entrant disrupting a market. However, never standing still I thought I could do a little adventuring while I work on this.

Then the idea came together, I had never run a marathon, I had a slot in the 2014 NYC marathon. NYC is tantalisingly close to Boston. Boston is the home of RunKeeper. I could run from Boston to NYC, then compete in the NYC marathon? It would only be around 260 miles it seemed perfectly achievable. As my adventure had also started at the birth of my first son, it also seemed apt that my son would run with me. Therefore, I would fly him out to run the last mile and have my youngest son run the last few metres. The idea was sorted, now I just needed to make it a reality.

I knew RunKeeper would assist me but I needed another partner, someone that could help make this a reality. I found airbnb, a fantastic company, they instantly felt like the perfect match. They have a product that is accessible through a smartphone, hosts all over the world, and they are even disruptive to a market.

Perhaps the thing that interested me the most was getting to meet lots of hosts along the way. I have always enjoyed sharing my story with others, so the idea of staying with local people from the community, whom I could share my story and they could share theres, seemed wonderful. Thankfully, airbnb agreed.

So its official, I will run from Boston to NYC, have an opportunity to stay with wonderful people and run the marathon. If you happen to live between Boston and NYC or indeed in either of the cities airbnb are looking for fun hosts. So if you would love to host me please – clic here

I will be updating at a furious pace over the next few weeks, as I begin my run on the 23rd of October and arrive in Central Park on the 31st of October. I will be live streaming a whole host of content of the run live and will have a dedicated website, so stay tuned on here and on my twitter for a whole host of updates.

Recently Braddan and I began a guide running project – guiderunning.UK. The simple goal is to raise awareness, point people towards guide running information and training and ultimately to connect as many visually impaired runners with guides as possible.

To promote the launch of guiderunning.uk we want to recruit a team of visually impaired runners and guides to compete in a 24-hour relay race. Don’t panic – this is definitely a sociable experience and not an all-out endurance competition. Pace and experience are certainly not an issue.

The race takes place in London over a 6-mile multi terrain route. It is not incredibly demanding. Trails are well maintained and relatively flat. More information about the even can be found at Spitfire Scramble

In true Spitfire spirit, guiderunning.uk needs YOU! – Just leave a comment below or contact me if you are interested.

Guide Runners

We are looking for a series of guide runners to aid our visually impaired runners around the course. There is no requirement to have guided before, the only requirement is to be able to run at least 6 miles, be available on the 30-31st of August and be able to make your own way to London.

The aim is to demonstrate how easy and accessible becoming a guide runner can be. We offer basic instructions on proficient guiding and will also be holding a training event 1-2 weeks before the main race.

The training opportunity will take place in London and will include basic q and a as well as running practice with a visually team mate, so will be a great opportunity to see just how easy it is to guide! Location and date to be confirmed.

Visually Impaired Runners

We are seeking visually impaired runners to join our team for Spitfire Scramble. The only requirement is to be able to run 6 miles twice within a 24 hour period. There is no requirement for a particular pace, we will pair you with a guide that is capable of running at your own pace, be it 6 minute miles or 16 minute miles. The most important thing to remember is there is no pressure!

We are aware that night time running can be a little tricky, so Braddan and I have agreed to run the entire night section. However, if any visually impaired runners would like to run through the night section they are more than welcome.

The terrain is multi-terrain, but nothing that is too difficult for a visually impaired runner. Guides will also be able to tether, if that is how you wish to run.

Camping

We will have a main campsite in the VIP section, this is where the visually impaired runners will be based. Showers are available and guide dogs are welcome. We will supply additional details closer to the date once we confirm numbers.

Access

The event is close to the underground with the event HQ a short bus, taxi or 15 minute walk from (Hornchurch Station), so there are great public transport links in and out of the event for any guides or runners that want to join us but prefer their creature comforts!

I consider myself an emotional runner. As it is my emotional state that appears to dictate how far I can run. Whether it is riding the crest of a high, where running seems as simple as breathing, or the depths where another step seems a daunting task. It is perhaps those depths that offer the most interesting moments of running. The opportunity to overcome and push despite being emotionally and physically depleted. While in those depths I motivate myself by allowing my mind to wander. I recall stories of other runners that in the past have inspired and motivated me. It is those stories that pull me from the depths and allow me to continue.

So when I was asked to contribute to a new running magazine “Like The Wind” with a focus on runner’s stories, I jumped at the chance to contribute. I wrote a short piece that told the story of my initial steps into running solo. After submitting the article, I was asked if I had any photos of myself running. I rarely retain photos of myself, as I don’t particularly have a need for photos. Instead it was suggested that an illustrator could take my piece and use it as the basis for a drawing. I thought this a great idea as it would allow them to add their own take on my story.

I was also invited down to the magazine launch, with the idea of me giving a little talk surrounding my running future. Again I jumped at the chance, with my IAB talk on the horizon I felt I needed a little more practice on stage. I had decided to take it seriously and for the first time write a script to memorise. After a few botched attempts I decided I would go for the usual approach – just wing it. I feel the talk went well and I managed to quickly reel through a few of the things I intend to do over the coming year.

The real surprise was my piece had become the cover of the magazine. The illustration stood proud as the cover with me being featured a few pages in. The magazine itself has a wonderful feel and smell (I am told it also looks beautiful!). It features a whole host of essays from inspiring runners as well as poems and photo essays. It stands as a beautiful and unique collection of running inspiration and will be something I will be proud to show my son when older.

The magazine is available for purchse through the Like Like The Wind store. I will also be doing a little giveaway of an issue next week. So stay tuned on twitter if you would like to win a copy!

Expaning on my previous post about accessibility features being features for all and not just those that rely on them, I decided to highlight one of the features my sighted friends use.

Setting up VoiceOver to read Kindle books out loud. This is a great feature and one that can make reading a book a breeze. Want to have a book read to you while working at the computer? Commuting on the train? Well this will allow you to do it without purchasing the audiobook! This is the feature I use to read all my books. Without it I frankly wouldn’t be able to read.

This feature has been made far easier with iOS7 too. As the ability to activate VoiceOver and invert colours has been added to Siri. This alone is great for me, now I can pickup my wifes iPhone or indeed anybodys and with a quick Siri command be able to use it. This is great for doing quick things like making a call on someone elses phone, or quickly checking something on the internet. So lets get down to how its done!

Activate VoiceOver – Activate Siri and issue the command “turn on VoiceOver”.

This activates VoiceOver and a press of the home button returns you to the home screen. Now you can launch Kindle in one of two ways: With the Siri command “laumch Kindle” or by using VoceOver gestures. To use the VoiceOver gesture tap the Kindle icon then do an additional single finger double tap to launch the app.

Once in the Kindle app you can activate the actual book by tapping the content, then a single finger double tap to activate it. A quick double finger swipe down will begin reading the book. Thats it! Your book will now be read to you. However you can conserve battery power by issuing a three finger quadruple tap. This will turn on Screen Curtain, a feature that turns off the screen but allows you to issue VoiceOver gestures. With screen curtain turned on simple double finger swipe down to begin reading again. You can turn off screen curtain with a triple finger quadruple tap. A quick warning a three finger, triple tap turns off the Voice for VoiceOver, which at first can be quite scary as your phone appears to stop working, so quickly turn the voice back on with a three finger triple tap and you will be back working. When finished you can disable VoiceOver using the Siri command “turn VoiceOver off”.

I personally think this is one of the greatest accessibility features for sighted and non sighted people. As the ability to have a book read aloud with a few taps is fantastic.

Below is a video of this in action that people can follow along too. A little side note I have VoiceOver sped up on my phone so yours may sound a little slower. This can be changed in the accessibility settings under VoiceOver if required.

For the past few months I have been running in maintenance mode. Generally managing to run around the half marathon length at the weekends and a couple of shorted distance runs in the week. However this week saw a foray into the start of an ultra training cycle. I have signed up for next years South Downs Way 50 so need to start the cycle now to get a decent finish.

So this week I had to do something I always like to believe I can but rarely do – the early morning run. I usually start running around 7am but if I am to fit my training in and university it means I have to run closer to 5am. I always tell myself I can do this but when the alarm goes off I switch it off and roll back over. I still did that this week but then after a few minutes thought “No, if I want to train I have to do it in the morning” and managed to yank myself out of bed.

I am having to train so early due to a few constraints at university. The commute is killing the amount of time I get to work and spend with my family so the plan was to go in fewer days a week but stay longer. So on a tuesday I am at university until 7pm so with the massive commute home I just cant fit the run in and an early rise the following day for university again!

It does mean tuesdays and wednesdays are a desperate squeeze of run, commute, university, commute, bed. It seems to make the days incredibly long but its the only way until next semester I can possible train and put in the work needed at university.

In an effort to enhance my employability after leaving university this week I decided to attend a leadership course. I figured it would be a great opportunity to get some face time with leaders from industry and to network. The course was put on by Common Purpose a multinational group that looks at Leadership around the world and the affects on the wider communities. They run a number of leadership courses and the one I attended was for disabled students and sponsored by Santander.

Arriving at the hotel with Ascot I was presented with my first challenge. We had forgotten to bring his food, we had packed the food just not put it in the car. If Ascot ate Pedigree Chum this would have been an easy problem to solve, but he is a delicate sole and eats a very specific food. So specific that it isn’t even for Labradors – No, Ascot believes himself to be a German Shepherd. There is usually a 5 day lead time on ordering his food and it is rarely stocked in shops. So after a quick google we headed to Pets At Home and bought the closest thing we could find. For a week Ascot would have to accept the fact he was a Labrador and forego his special German Shepherd food.

The first evening was full of the usual awkwardness. None of us knew each other and with around 40 people on the course the challenge was on to quickly mingle and find people to talk too. As a stroke of luck I sat down for dinner and happened to be sat down next to the person who would be in my working group for 2 days. So we quickly chatted and began to get to know each other.

Day 1

The first day was a mix of group work and talks from leaders from the surrounding areas. The first challenge of the day was to present an object and talk about what it said of you to the group. I took along my NYC 2012 marathon medal. This is a great medal as the race was never run and it reminds me of an unexpected adventure that my guide runner and I embarked on.

The first talk of the day was on questioning. Studying psychology I had been fortunate enough to have read around the topic. While the presented used different terminology who was talking about question framing. He went on to demonstrate how framing (constraining in his words) would shape an individuals response. I am a huge fan of Kahneman and Tversky whose early work on framing and anchoring is incredibly enlightening. Reading up on any of their early work would be a great supplement to this talk and really bring to the front the power of framing. I personally have a great interest in anchoring and especially irrelevant anchoring and its outcomes on decision making. So this talk definitely resonated with me and just made me think of how everything he spoke about worked on a number of different levels with the research that backed it up. Another great supplement to this talk would have been Influence by Robert and Cialdini. While this book focuses on influence and persuasion it can readily apply to questioning.

We then undertook a number of group challenges, including one on diversity. These were a great opportunity to be presented with opinions in views that greatly differed from your own and how as an individual and a group you would deal with that. Other challenges of the day involved using play doh and a Mr Potato head to represent the qualities of a leader.

A second talk of the day was incredibly interesting. It was a frank and honest portrayal of an individuals journey to become a leader. Interestingly once he became a leader he spoke about encouraging others to grow and develop. The ideas he spoke of were similar to those of Daniel Pink in his book Drive. Especially the elements on autonomy of his staff and intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Again the terminology different by the presented but definitely fell in line with Pink’s ideas.

The final piece of group work we did was to highlight our strengths and weaknesses and set ourselves a challenge for the following day. As we went around the group everyone highlighted a challenge for the following day and mine was to work on approaching people. While I feel confident to give a speech because I have no idea where people actually are the initial approach can be quite difficult.

Day 2

After a few group challenges we had the first talk of the day. This talk I believe was supposed to be about influence. However I struggled to relate to this particular speaker. I felt his point of influence became a little muddled and lost within his story. This may have been due to the fact I did not relate to the sector he was from. I took as much as I could from the speech but found it a little lacking on influence. A cursory read of the influence book above would of given a far greater overview of influence. However what it did do and was perhaps the entire point was to introduce us to the idea of influence, preparing us for the afternoons challenge.

The challenge for the afternoon would be to meet with a company, be presented with a challenge they were currently facing and offer a new view or insight. This seemed incredibly exciting and was the challenge I was most looking forward to. We were presented with our brief that identified two clear challenges, we quickly divided ourselves into two groups and began to make notes of possible questions. This quickly fell apart on arrival as we were divided into exactly the opposite groups we had decided on beforehand!

In hindsight this was for the best. The entire point of the course was to challenge ourselves. So before arriving we had chosen the task we were most comfortable with, then presented with the task we were least comfortable with.

In the time we had been allotted we had to come up with some concepts, present them and answer questions. Our group seemed to come up with some unique ideas and even highlighted some emerging technologies that the company had not heard of. I enjoy pitching ideas so this challenge for me was incredibly enjoyable.

Day 3

The final day was a slog. Not due to the amount of work we had to do but more related to the time spent in Revolutions the previous night consuming copious amounts of vodka. However our group knuckled down and began the days challenges.

One of the most interesting was the opportunity in small groups to ask questions of local leaders. For me the most interesting was the CEO of a tech startup. I love technology and I also enjoy the idea of the elastic demands of entrepreneurs in the early days of a tech startup. Under a large amount of questioning the CEO reiterated Daniel Pink’s work in To Sell is Human. I find the mindset of serial entrepreneurs interesting, that constant cycle of intense drive with a clear exit strategy and the next idea. I found this particular individual fascinating.

In the afternoon there were a couple of notable group tasks. Soap boxing which involved standing up and sharing your vision with the group. The group would then vote with their feet and stand next to whosoever pitch was the most persuasive or compelling. There were some great ideas put across but I voted on emotion. Any pitch that can make you smile and evoke an emotion for me is the winner. If you can make someone else feel your passion your are half way there!

The second interesting challenge was “Who I am” which was a 10 minute task in order to tell the story of who you were to one listened and one observer. The person I had told my story too seemed a little shocked, I had only mentioned my past achievements to people who asked or directly asked about things like the TV commercials. It was a great chance to cram my story into 10 minutes but I did feel like I was cheating a little when at the end it was commented that I delivered it incredibly well and covered the important points. So I felt obliged to reveal that I have told that story many times in one guise or another!

The final task of the day was to present another individual from your group with their graduation certificate. This was assigned at random and I was fortunate enough to be presented my certificate to someone who I had become close to through the course.

Final thoughts

The course was an incredible experience. The opportunity to spend time with other disabled people and hear their unique stories was fantastic. Like the film festival a few weeks back I came away inspired. Our own achievements simply become the things we do to move forward and we rarely identify how special they are. Therefore I always find the stories of others more inspiring and my particular favourite happened while we were knocking back the vodka on the night out. I was talking to someone who had taught themselves to read and write english when they came to this country a few years ago. An impressive task in itself but then when they expanded and described how they learnt I was blown away.

Hearing other peoples stories can often provide us strength and help us push forward in our own lives so I will definitely draw on that story in the future.

One of the greatest things to take away is the bonds that were created while on the course, fore it is those bonds and the networks created that will no doubt lead to opportunities in the future.

When i first began to run I was always of the philosophy I may not be the fittest person around, but I believed in my mental hardiness.  I believed and still do that I can continue to push beyond what I have achieved on any given day.

This hardiness was built on the back of others achievements.  Reading about other runners such as Dean Karnazes inspired me to start down the long road of running long.  Hearing about others achievements inspires me to go outside and see how far I can push.  One of my favourite ever inspirations was by a runner whose name escapes me.  One day someone sent me a link to a youtube video of ultra runners.

The runner spoke of the runners high and that he preferred to explore the low times.  For if he was able to push in the lows the highs would take care of themselves.  There may be a little para-phrasing there but the idea stuck with me.  From that point on I have always tried to explore the difficult running days.  Making sure to manage my emotions when it gets tough and bring the breathing and heart rate in line.  Concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other.  This has served me so well and has allowed to to continue to push in a multitude of situations.

So when I heard about an adventure film festival taking place in Buxton I thought it would be a great idea to head on over.  After all I could meet someone who gives me that little piece of knowledge that pops into my head on a difficult run!  There are lots of talks and film viewings of all sorts of athletes you can find a full list over at the Buxton Adventure Festival running 2-3rd of November

I plan on attending on the Sunday with a runner and his wife that I met a while ago, Simon Freeman.  We are managing to squeeze in 3 talks.  The first from Heather Dawe, ultra runner, climber and cyclist who is chatting on stage with Claire Maxted, followed by the film Dragons Back.

Followed by Jez Bragg who is talking about his epic 3,054Km journey across New Zealand.  Then finally the one I am looking forward to the most Rosie Pope-Swale the only person to ever run around the world solo!  Mixed in between all the talks are numbers short films, so it is sizing up to be an incredibly  inspiring day.

I wrote this ost listening to the perfect song — Haim – Falling.  Is perhaps the running mantra i live to, never look back, never give up.