college bound?

After my interview last week for college I was told to nip in to talk with Learner Services to discuss financial support for disabled students.

Arriving at college I headed to Learner Services, unsurprisingly they were unable to help and send me over to finance. This did not go as planned….

After a 5 minute conversation which included going round in numerous circles the verdict was simply.

“We do not guarantee any financial support to disabled students.”

But I need access to the books to complete my course, surely you will help fund that?

“We cannot guarantee that.”

The cherry on the cake? the course will have been running for over a month before they even make a decision. So I would have to start the course sans books and I MAY get them at some point.

A little angry and disappointed I headed home. I quickly got on task and began looking for a book scanning service. I shot off a few emails and waited for a response. After 20 minutes I got bored of that and decided to start ringing around.

First port of call Action For Blind/RNIB. They were incredibly helpful and gave me the contact information for Leeds University Transcriptions services. After explaining my needs we got down to the nitty gritty of cost, £7.42 pp. Which for the roughly thousand pages I need require comes in at a whopping £7420.

More than a little out of my price range, shocked at the price I returned to online research. After a few calls I managed to find a private sector service that would do it for 30p a page +VAT.

A little math shows it would cost:

Books: £70
Scanning: £352.50
iPad: £429
Total: £851.50

This is before any other supplementary scanning costs for other documentation. I simply cannot afford to pay that much for 2 books.

The solution? Well thanks to my previous role I am reasonably tech savvy. So onto the shopping list goes a book scanner and a whole host of post processing tools. The money saved will be negligible but will allow me to run a service at cost for other users that need books scanning at a reasonable price.

Pancake Power

In preparation for todays personal best I began the day with the usual eggs, bacon and pancake stack. The challenge today was 5.5 miles.

Scott arrived and we set off for a new drop off point. We decided on a new route which would place us on the usual stretch home with around 4.5 miles to go.

Now whenever we choose a new route I have to try and memorise the terrain and curbs. There was a slight hair raising moment where I believed the path went straight on, this however placed me into oncoming traffic.

I quick shout of “wrong way!” and I was back on course. The first mile melted away as we joined the home 4.5 mile stretch. This long slog allows your mind to wander.

Today I began noticing how aggressive my foot strike can become. This is due to the undulating sidewalks, whenever we pass a drive way the sidewalk will dip then raise. So the dip generally results in a longer than anticipated stride so I heel strike heavily.

I doubt this problem can be solved by increased communication from my guide runner as the flow of information would be way to high. I do memorise a number of the dips and raises and have amended my running position, but I feel it will simply be a bug to bear.

The run was far easier than either of us anticipated, next weeks challenge a 10k!

College Bound

Yesterday was my scheduled interview for college entrance. I had already passed the entrance assessments and this was the final stage.

My wife works at the college in the Learning Resource Centre so I headed into work with her to be prompt for the interview.

To burn a little time I listened to an audiobook, SuperFreakonomics. Despite criticism I do enjoy the series. I gleaned some wonderful insights about India. A little tap on my shoulder from my wife, interview time!

On arriving at reception I was informed it would be conducted in groups. Now I don’t get nervous about the group dynamic in fact I usely perform highly in competitive group tasks. But I realised receiving assistance in this scenario for things such as mobility would be difficult.

A quick chat and one of the staff agreed to assist me upstairs to part 1 of 3. Moving around the college was far more difficult than I had anticipated. I certainly need to learn the routes and memorise layouts.

Part 1 of the interview lasted all of 60 seconds, as soon as they confirmed I was educated and knew basic maths I was rushed to part 2.

Now this is where it became a little more interesting. I was handed a sheet of paper by the next assesor and told to choose a timetable. I informed him I was blind and would be unable to read the timetable.

“Well I don’t have the time to read it to you”

“How about you run me through the main points and we can go from there.”

Then the penny dropped, he had just refused to read the timetable for a potential disabled student. We worked together on the timetable and quickly came up with a lesson plan that was a good fit.

We began to talk about my vision loss and what I was able to see. In another misguided moment of his he questioned how a blind person would be able to complete this course.

I pointed out a few of the adaptations myself and the college could make and this quenched his negativity. As we continued to talk he asked about my past education and career.

This is the point where people generally stand to attention. People are shocked when informed I am well educated [in my previous field] and held down a managerial role.

Part 3 went without a hitch, so timetable complete I am officially starting in September. With one little caveat of finance, I will be speaking to Learner Services next week about this.

After the interview I met with my guide runner Scott and we headed into town to play with an iPad. Quickly turning on the accessibility features I gave iBook a twirl. Testing VoiceOver, Zoom and White on Black, made reading books a dream.

In an effort to make me jealous Scott ordered one. I will have mine soon!

AARRGHHHHHHHHH

**Update – Deal reached YAY!**

With my money raising going well I was all excited about purchasing my iPad.

Then I read this. So no books on the UK iBook Store. Fantastic, I was ready to order my iPad and start ordering books.

Thats right publishers I actually wanted to buy YOUR products. The publishing is renowned for dragging its feet when it comes to the digital era. Lets hope they don’t follow the path of the record industries. P2P would not of been the success it is today if they had jumped on the digital age in the late 90’s early 2000.

So come on EU publishers get on board, I want access to your books. I want to be able to read again, to be a consumer.

The iPad is Nearly Within Reach

With the recent sale of all my old unwanted goods I am nearing the goal of being able to afford an iPad.

My wife and I sold all our old books to FatBrain. Its an excellent service that allowed us to sell a large number of books simply. Understandably the sale price is lower than selling on eBay or amazon. But the ease of use is unbeatable.

The money from our book sales and random eBay sales has brought me very close to being able to afford the iPad.

My wife is already planning the books she will read to our unborn child. My vision issues don’t allow me to read standard books and reading to my child is not something I want to miss out on. The accessibility features on the iPad allow the high contrast and brightness I require.

Access to books again for my own personal use is something I look forward too. Instead of looking at our bookshelf and being tortured by memories of my reading ability, once again I can read.

The accessibility features of the iPad are fantastic. With a triple click of the home screen you have access to a screen reader, zoom features and white on black. I am thankful that Apple builds these features into their devices at no extra cost.

The screen reader will be me goto tool for college and university as my eyes tire. Assuming of course I manage to get all those textbooks in digital format.

For now I eagerly await access to the iBooks store and continue to trawl the internet for fun apps to play with my nephews and own child.

P90X Is Childs Play

Today my guide runner and I decided to continue our adventure into CrossFit.

Now for a little background I have completed the P90X program recently. It is a great program for building the glamour muscles, the biceps, triceps and shoulders. It is also a pretty good workout for people with low vision, as the audio instructions are reasonably precise. So I would definitely recommend for low vision people looking to get fit.

However preparation for a return to CrossFit it is not. I fatigued so quick today it was laughable. Also turns out isolated triceps movements are pretty useless prep for real dips.

The workout consisted of:

21-15-9
HSPU
Dips
Pressups

I fatigued in round 1 and barely made it through the supposedly quick routine.

After finishing we decided to regain some confidence and go for a little run. A steady 1Km warm up and then a few sprints.

We began our 1Km warmup. With a few concise instructions from my guide runner we were making great progress. Then he spouted out a fantastic instruction “yeah loads here, there is cars, posts and loads of shit”.

No left, right, curb just “loads of shit”. We both started laughing as I was gently nudged to the right of the car.

Run complete time for some sprints! This was literally a tonne of fun, will certainly be doing high speed sprints in the future.

Heat

The build up for todays run began yesterday when my guide runner sent me a text. “its gonna be even hotter tomorrow”, no worries we be fine!

I started this morning off with the usual pre run breakfast of, eggs, bacon, pancakes and OJ. Perhaps not strictly diet safe but I convince myself I need the energy, so go in heavy with the syrup.

I did play it calorie safe on the bacon and fed some to a neighbourhood cat, who I have decided to name Swoosh.

Sian dropped us off at the Doncaster racecourse a little over 5 miles from our house. We began the run in the shade with a steady pace, rounding the first corner we are hit by the heat. The first mile went well, on pace and feeling energetic. The second mile the sun was beginning to take its toll.

At the end of the 2nd mile fatigue hit, damn you sun!

It was time to dig really deep and adapt a little ultra marathon methodology. Walk the hills. This decimated our pace but would hopefully give us the distance finish.

Entering my estate only half a mile to go! Now when we fatigue it is easier for me to run on the road so my guide runner gets a little break from instructions. This resulted in some driver shouting “the road isn’t for running!”. My guide runner pointed out she was a little rotund and was perhaps confused by exercise.

Only 200m left to go, thank god. We had made it, practically 1st and goal! Completing the miles we congratulated ourselves for even attempting the run in this heat.

Did make me ponder, can I take the heat in a 100 miler?