escapologybb

Thank you, that is now going round in my head on a continuous loop!

I pretty much completely agree with the content of what you said as well.

I absolutely loved Terry Pratchett Discworld, make me laugh at some real bad times in my life.

I'm currently listening to thief of time which is weirdly good, didn't like it at first but it really is good. That and the last continent.

Obviously this is all secondary to the Night Watch, Sam Vimes is definitely on Hacker News somewhere, right? :-)

edited to add: over the past few weeks Apple and their accessibility approach has come up a few times on HN, and when I responded there have been so many questions that I really really wanted to answer. However, not had the energy to be able to respond in a timely manner and certainly not quickly enough and set the article is still on the front page of HN. Basically because quadriplegia.

So I know that there are are a lot of questions about use my computer, and that's largely because The people on HN are genuinely and wonderfully curious.

The question that seems to fascinate able-bodied engineers goes something like this: "imagine coming home and finding somebody had removed every switch, button and lever from every device in your environment; What would you do?" That's the question I had to answer before I could get to where I don't get a job and have to start my own company as a result!

So my question is how best do people think I should share this information? Blog post, Twitter thread (eww) or messenger pigeon?

I would just like to say that there isn't a company on the planet making consumer electronics that leans in harder than Apple does, as a quadriplegic I can get an able-bodied monkey to take my new iShiny out-of-the-box and from then on I can do everything you can do on that device.

They really are world leaders at this stuff, I can use my right index finger and my mouth and with just that I can use Apple products to run my own company and talk to people on HN (you know, the important stuff!). ---

My money doesn't seem to fit in any of the slots on my computer...

Apple just keeps knocking it out of the park and into a completely new sports metaphor assistive technology provision, they really do. Any measure, I'm a massive nerd/geek/hacker and I really have looked into alternatives both in the open source and proprietary basis and nobody at all is assistive technology as well as at all right now.

It really is as simple as whenever I have a new iShiny, I pounds on the nearest able-bodied monkey and get them to take total box and connected to Wi-Fi and then it's all me. From then on I don't need any more able-bodied assistance whatsoever with setting up the new device, it's awesome. And whilst it's been a few months, the last time I looked known of the other major players were able to come anywhere close to this level of frictionless setup for quadriplegics like me.

ALSO! ALSO! Let's not forget that this isn't some crappy subset of functions that quadriplegics have to settle for whilst everybody else gets the full fat version of the software. Nope, with very few exceptions pretty much anything an able-bodied person can do with their iShiny I'll be able to do as well. Just a little slower.

Apple, and specifically their approach to accessibility is only one of many reasons I'm able to work, see my family and generally engage with society as well as I currently do.

Also, I quite like the term cripple, differently abled or on a good day Stuart. WTF cares what label you give me, I am much more interested in whether this laptop enables me to do the shopping independently and see my Nieces without having to check with an able-bodied person first.

If anybody from the project is reading this, could you tell me where I should send the application, entrance form, fee or even straight up bribes to get my brain and this technology smushed together please?

I'm quadriplegic and since lockdown began last March I've not left this bed once. That's not hyperbole, I literally mean that I haven't left the spot in this bed I'm in right now, writing this comment to you all.

So Yeah, connecting with the world like this is something I need to be a part of. I really don't have words to describe how life changing this would be.

Feels weird to say thank you, but the kind words make me feel better. thank you.

You will understand why your comment makes me feel deeply uncomfortable and incredibly proudTo hear that someone of my peers.

My partner says (and I think she is totally right) that I have major trouble when I have more than one emotion at the same time!

Using my computer.

I had to give up my degree in CompSci because I was becoming quadriplegic beginning in the early 2000's, And was unable to type. I then spent a decade working out how to become a computer scientist/robotic/terrible drone flyer. If that does not sound difficult, imagine coming home from work and finding out every single light switch, but, lever and key from your keyboard been removed. What do you do? I asked, you are also in pain.

Also, at the time there was no academic structure available to help, so I had to do it myself.

(I find this comment incredibly hard to write because I am a northern man from the UK and emotion is not something we do easily, this feels like boasting to me even though it answers your question. I am writing it Everybody else who might be struggling with some insurmountable problem with a very simple point: Do. Not. Give. Up.

Not ever, and you will either achieve your goal or die trying. You will almost certainly surprise yourself though.)

No need to eat humble pie at all! it has been my experience thatEngineers And other reprobates like the ones that haunt can use don't know anything about this stuff, but the second it is brought to their attention I pretty uniformly had positive responses along the lines of "hmm, that is an interesting engineering question" and away we go. :-)

It is one of the wonderful things about this place, who gives a crap about the emotion being quadriplegic (I certainly don't) let's just solve the logistical problems! And as far as I'm concerned all of the problems that disability has introduced into my life have solutions that revolve around logistics, which project/process/company/widget do I need to buy/invent/collaborate on to make this thing work. It's great.

Aeotec and Fibaro Tend to be my go to companies when I want to buy some sort of sensor, anything from door and window sensors to motion sensors. Overall they have been the most solid and well performing in my experience.

No problem, in about an hour things will start appearing And I will include usefulness et cetera.

The most commonly used automation by a very long way are the lights, because I use voice operated computer people were continually coming into my asking if I was okay because they could hear me talking. This obviously was crazy makin.

So now they ignore all talking unless they see:

All of the lights pulse on and off in a blue colour, which means can you please give me a hand when you have a minute I would like a drink or something similar and it is not urgent.

Or

All of the lights pulse on and off in a red colour, which means drop and come running as I am having and episode of autononmic dysreflexia, my hair is on fire or something equally problematic. It is a very much urgent.

after that I would say that these three are the most used, I'm sure there is a way of pulling that information out of the database but I'm not sure how. If someone from home Assistant Team would like to tell me, that would be great!

* Battery Level on iPhone is below 20%, get someone to plug it in * Notification asking that the basement be closed when it starts raining, or if someone opens the window when rain is predicted to please close it * Logging whenever the medication draw is opened and closed and keeping a running tally (this one is super important)

actually,

I just wanted to saythat I totally agree with part:

> However, the power of HA comes from the third step: automation. The best interface is the one you can forget exists.

I have the interface just for my carers and PAs et cetera, almost all of my interactions with the house are done via voice or other scripts triggered by various things. I would post a picture of my dashboard but it is horrendously messy contain hundreds things!