Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind the source for blindness news and information since 1907

A very interesting thing happened to me over the past two weeks. I have been taking Meyer for his daily walks and he has been slowing down as we’ve done these walks. I found myself becoming frustrated with this behavior and a few times, I shouted to him to “hup up,” which is the command to walk faster. This did not work at all! As this happened, I started getting after Meyer about every little thing he was doing as we walked. The walks became a time when I felt angry at Meyer, angry at myself, and wanting Whitlee to come back to me. All of this frustration and anxiety made for an unpleasant bunch of walks together.

I dropped Kathy, the field rep, an email which explained Meyer’s slower speed. Kathy replied and said she would be out to see us the next day. Upon her arrival, we sat down and had a talk. Kathy reminded me how difficult the transition between dogs can be and she reminded me not to get angry, or to shout at Meyer. She asked me to immediately take my mind into another place when I thought of comparing Meyer and Whitlee. Before we started our walk, Kathy instructed me to be very excited, happy, and enthusiastic with Meyer. She asked me to rile him up, to scratch him, pet him, and to get him really jazzed and excited. After this exercise, we began to take our walk.

The first thing she noticed was that my hand was bouncing as we walked, which caused the harness to bounce on Meyer’s back. She stopped us from walking and showed me how to relax my elbow so that Meyer was not experiencing any more bouncing and she pointed out how this bouncing was very uncomfortable for the dog.

Instead of using the “hup up” command, she instructed me to give Meyer a little scratch along his lower back. This little trick made him immediately pick up his speed and off we went. Kathy reminded me to give him enthusiastic verbal praise for increasing his speed and she reminded me to also give him food rewards at various intervals during our walks.

The next morning, I woke up and did my usual morning activities, but this time, I played with Meyer, got him excited, and then started our morning walk. During the walk, Meyer kept a nice quicker speed and he was more excited and focused on his work. It sure felt great!

It is amazing to me how we can so easily fall into a place in life where we feel angry or sad. Suddenly, time goes by and we haven’t stopped these feelings and it is almost like it becomes the norm for us. I was so caught in a rut of feeling bad about retiring Whitlee that I didn’t even realize that this negative feeling was translating down to Meyer. I wasn’t appreciating him or accepting what he brought into my life, and that is really unfair.

I learned so many new things from Kathy and Graham at Guiding Eyes and now I have an entire toolbox of tricks up my sleeve that I can use with Meyer. This is supposed to be a new chapter in my life, where I experience new things, learn new things, and be happy with what I currently have. And now, I’ve learned that I can do all of that and still be thankful for the experiences from the past.

One of the most difficult aspects of having a guide dog is the reality that eventually the dog will need to be retired, or the dog will pass away. This is something every guide dog owner must face along the way. Once they retire, you have to deal with the prospects of getting a new guide dog, if you so choose. In a lot of ways, retiring Whitlee and getting Meyer was ending one relationship and starting another. It has come with its happiness, struggles, sadness, and ultimate success.

As this new journey continues each day, I find myself at times making mental comparisons of the two dogs. For example, Meyer likes to play with his toys, we do this a few times a day together and he makes me laugh quite a bit. Whitlee and I didn’t do much playing–she was either working or chilling out as I carried out my daily tasks. Another comparison between them is that Meyer is a bit of a slow poke on his morning walks, where as Whitlee always had this good focus and drive to her work, no matter the time of day or the place.

My biggest hurtle to cross with Meyer is that we are still new together as a team. Having a dog is not fresh and new to me as it was with Whitlee. With her, everything we did was a first for me with a dog. Now, I am doing all of the same things with Meyer, but he is not the first and it feels like it is the same old stuff but with a different dog. I suppose for people who drive cars, they remember their first car and the level of independence they felt when they drove off in it for the first time. I remember the first time I took a walk with Whitlee and the feeling has been unmatched to date.

So you might wonder to yourself, do I appreciate Meyer for who he is? Do I think I will come to trust and respect him? Is it ok that I don’t have the same feelings towards him as I did for Whitlee?

My answer to all these questions is yes. It will take time for these things to all fall into place. Each day, I feel that we are moving in the right direction towards trust, comfort, respect, and love between Meyer and I. Every day, being with him, watching him during our days, walking together with him and caring for him are all helping to get us closer in our journey. I think we’re meant for great things.

After spending ten days at the campus of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, I took a nice, long ride back to Hartford, CT. As we drove north, I noticed a bit of snow cover on the ground from a weak snow event that happened the night before I left the campus. When we arrived home, the driver from Guiding Eyes helped me assemble the new crate that had arrived for Meyer. When we entered my apartment, Meyer walked around and sniffed his way through every room. After the trainer left, Meyer ran laps around the apartment for five minutes. I could already tell that he liked to slide on the carpeting. One thing became quickly apparent during our first few hours at home–Meyer was a young, fit dog, whereas Whitlee was an older dog who was not interested in running laps. It was true that she had slowed down considerably and I could really see the difference between the two dogs once I got back home in my own space.

I began my five days of home training with Kathy, the field rep from Guiding Eyes. Our first walk took place the morning after a three inch snowfall. This meant that most sidewalks were not properly cleared, which was good because I got to see how Meyer would deal with snow piles at the curbs. At first, our walk went fine. Then, we encountered a barking dog stationed behind a fence. I know this dog well from the many walks I did with Whitlee. When we encountered this dog, Whitlee would just keep going and ignore the dog. Meyer, however, thought it was suddenly play time. It is such a high level of a distraction for a guide dog to come upon another dog that is behind a fence barking, jumping and running as we try to pass. In this case the property runs parallel to the sidewalk for an entire block, so it was very difficult getting past this other dog with Meyer. We must have worked through this situation for at least 30 minutes. Kathy gave me some techniques to use to help Meyer learn to ignore the dog and focus on me. After all, a guide dog needs to focus on their person in order to keep them safe. I thought time stood still as we worked through the situation and I didn’t think I would ever be able to handle this on my own. But finally, after lots of work, Meyer and I made it past the noisy dog and continued on our way. When we got back home, I was mentally exhausted from the experience and I realized that I would have to use the tools Kathy gave me every time we passed this other dog. I couldn’t avoid walking and working Meyer just because of that distraction, I had to learn to be confident and consistent.

It is important to note that when I got Meyer, even though I intended to approach the situation with no expectations, that just wasn’t the case. It was very easy to expect him to act just like Whitlee. It was easy to expect him to work and perform just as Whitlee performed and that is not a fair thing to do to him. After all, he has his own personality and, like Whitlee, he has his strengths and weaknesses. It is my daily task to remember this and give him the fair chance he deserves.

Now that I was beginning to get acclimated to my new dog, it was time to get used to the schedule that he and I would be sharing.

Each day, the other action student and I worked with the trainer on walking routes. At first, he went out with us individually and used a support leash on the dogs, just in case anything happened where we needed his assistance. After a few days, he took off the support leash and we began to work with him together in doubles. I found this to be a lot of fun and would call out all of the great food smells as we walked through downtown White Plains. I liked working with the other action student because we were both experiencing our routes together with our dogs. Sometimes, a situation would arise with my dog and the other student and I were able to observe how we dealt with the situation. Sometimes, I was able to observe a situation that she was going through and could learn from it.

We worked in many places including city sidewalks, country roads without sidewalks, shopping mall hallways, shopping mall stores, stairs, elevators, escalators, cars and busses. As we worked in these various places, the trainer assisted us in giving the dogs the proper commands, the correct hand signals, the best ways to praise the dogs when they did good work and the best ways to correct or redirect the dogs when things didn’t work well. All during these days of training, the trainer never raised his voice and always offered good, clear suggestions as we worked. He treated each of us and our dogs with respect and kindness, and did so in a relaxed, fun tone so we all enjoyed ourselves.

The typical daily schedule consisted of a wake up announcement at 6AM, which was designed to make sure everyone was up and taking their dogs out. After we came in, the dogs got food and water and were then taken out a second time. This was followed by everyone gathering for obedience work in a large open room, which reminded me of my school’s gym. After that, we were escorted with our dogs for breakfast. Usually by this time, I was more than starved! Once that was over, everyone loaded up into the vans with their dogs and we headed to White Plains for the day. Everyone did a morning route with their dog and a trainer and then we all had lunch, followed by another afternoon route with the dogs. This was followed by the trip back to campus. Once back on campus, we would again feed the dogs, give them water and take them outside. Then, we had our dinner and reported for an evening lecture at 6PM. After lecture, we had the evenings to ourselves. Though, these evenings didn’t last long because we were all tired from the day’s events. The schedule remained the same every day to enable the dogs to settle into a routine with us.

All through my time at school, I noticed how my attitude changed. I began to feel better as time passed. After all, I had a new dog, I was learning new things, meeting new people, making new friends, and there was nothing bad about any of these experiences. All of the students sure enjoyed many laughs in the evenings as we talked about our adventures of the day. I know I have made some lifelong friends and had some life changing experiences.

On January 9th, I woke up and my mother brought me to the train station. I rode the train down to New York and met someone from Guiding Eyes for the Blind, who assisted me to her van and we drove to their campus. Upon my arrival, they helped me unload my belongings and brought me to my room. The instructor, Melinda, did a fantastic job of orienting me to my room, the hallways, and all of the campus. It was my home away from home.

All through that first day, I really had no feelings at all. I wanted Whitlee back and I wanted to go home. Then, I started meeting the other students as they arrived and we all had stories to tell about our experiences and our lives. As I participated in those first few days of class, I realized I wasn’t alone on this journey–everyone there was in the same boat as I and that was a comforting thing to experience. Later on that Monday, I met the rest of my classmates, the trainer’s assistant, Mike, the class trainers, Jamie and Chrissey, and the instructor for the Action Program, Graham.

On Tuesday, we had some lectures and some activities which were designed to help the trainers get to know us better. For me, I was there in the Action Program. This program gives students ten days of training on the campus and an additional five days of home training. The other students were there for 19 days if they were getting a second or third dog and for 26 days if they were receiving their first dog.

So, while the other students were doing activities with the trainers, I actually got the chance to meet my trainer and my new dog, Meyer. Meyer is a 23 month old black and tan German Shepherd with a very long, fluffy tail and some very expressive ears that move in all directions all the time. Meyer was indifferent to me when we met and I was indifferent to him. I don’t even think I got any sniffs from him on that first day. The trainer took us to White Plains, NY on Tuesday and we participated in our first two walks together. What an experience this was for me. It was a different dog, a different harness and we were working in an area new to me. I wanted to give everything back and go home. I didn’t like the way the harness felt and I didn’t think the dog liked me. What I did notice, though, was that Meyer walked nicely and he was very serious about his work. Graham, the trainer, was excellent, and he told me that we did a beautiful job together during our first two walks and he told me that it looked like we had been working together for a while. He also said I did a nice job following right along with Meyer. After his encouraging words, the thought of giving up and going home disappeared for good. After we were done with our walks, Meyer was brought back to the kennel for grooming and bathing so that he could be ready for our official meeting with all the other dogs and students on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, we all received our dogs and from then on, they were to be with us all the time. While we were in our room, Meyer seemed to want to know all about what was going on in the hallways. He acted like he was the policeman for everyone. He would stand and watch the door for hours. As those first few days passed, I still wasn’t sure if he liked me or not. Each day, we went to White Plains, did two routes, and participated in other class activities. Things really began to all fit together.

At the beginning of 2012, most people were celebrating a new year and a new beginning. For me, I had to bring my life with Whitlee to an end and look forward to a new beginning. On New Year’s Day, my family and I loaded everything into the car and began a 3 day trip to North Carolina. The purpose of this trip was to bring Whitlee, my guide dog, to be with her foster family, where she would enjoy her retirement. We left at 8:00AM and drove all the way down to Wilmington, North Carolina by 10:00PM. The trip down was actually quite nice. As we drove, the weather got warmer and I was excited because I was going to a place I had never been before. It has always been a dream of mine to drive down the east coast in the winter to experience the ever-increasing warmth as you drive.

We stayed at a nice hotel in Wilmington and the next morning, we drove to Calabash, where Whitlee would live. We didn’t even realize that we had arrived in the place we needed to, which was a gated community area, and all of a sudden, I was only minutes away from saying goodbye to the dog who had changed my life for the better, the dog who I had been with for the last 8 and a half years. That was a tough thing to swallow.

We arrived at the foster parents’ home and as soon as Whitlee saw them, she was wiggling, wagging her tail, and excited. This helped me because I always loved when she was excited. We went into their home where we met the two other dogs that Whitlee would live in her golden years. It turns out that she is the tallest and longest of the three dogs in her new group of friends. I gave all of Whitlee’s belongings to her foster family, had a melt-down, and then gave her a few pats before we left. I didn’t say goodbye, though, because I know I am welcome to visit anytime I wish.

After leaving their place, we visited some family in the area and it was a nice distraction for me. The entire area is quite nice–flat lands, green trees, nice people, and they get mostly mild temperatures all through the winter and only average about 2 or 3 inches of snow per year.

The trip home was also interesting, except that as we drove north, it got colder and colder because some arctic air had made its way into the region. By the time we got back to CT, the temperature was 19 degrees with lots of wind. Coming back to my apartment was a hard thing to do for sure. My home didn’t seem like a home without my dog. I decided to keep very busy until the day I had to leave for guide dog school–the next chapter in my journey.

I am always very excited when assistive technology makes a step into the mainstream. This is because I like to be able to share in what everyone else is doing in the world as much as possible without appearing or being perceived as different. We should all have the same rights and means to be who we want to be without anything getting in the way.

Very recently, GW Micro, the makers of Window-Eyes, released GW Skype. Skype is a program that allows you to make phone calls, or conduct chat sessions from your computer, with the use of a microphone or headset. Skype has been around since 2003, and its user interface has always been difficult to use by those of us who use screen readers. Scripts had to be written for the screen readers to make them work with Skype and if the screen reader had a version change, the scripts had to be changed as well.

GW Skype will work with the Windows platform and will also work with whichever screen reader you choose. It is a separate program, which you can download and run, so it doesn’t matter if the Skype interface changes over time. GW Micro plans to keep this platform updated as necessary. After you download the program, you can install it to your computer. The installation is easy and asks the normal questions. Once the install is complete, you can have GW Skype run after the install, or you can decide to start it on your own when you’re ready to use it. The first time it runs, you are presented with the manual and a welcome message. If you are already a Skype user, when prompted, you can log in with your user name and password and you can have GW Skype remember your username and password, if you desire.

The user interface is very simply laid out. When you start GW Skype, you are brought to the list view of your contacts. You can use your up and down arrows to navigate this list, or you can move yourself to the menu bar of the user interface to choose a menu item. Every item in the menu bar has shortcut keys assigned to its function, so over time, you will get familiar with the shortcuts you use most frequently. There are no other areas of the user interface to deal with, making it straight-forward and simple. From the looks of things, the keyboard shortcuts for the menu items are standard shortcuts, which is why it is possible to run this program with any screen reader.

So far, the limitation of GW Skype is that you can’t use it for video chat but, they expect to get that feature added in the next several months. I commend GW Micro for putting this program out there for the low vision and blindness community. I hope that more companies begin to embrace the practice of taking standard programs that currently are unusable and make them accessible and usable to us.

To learn more about GW Skype you can visit http://www.gwmicro.com/App_Central/Apps/App_Details/?scriptid=1353

In the new version of Zoomtext, if you use Windows Vista or Windows 7, and you use a logon username and password, Zoomtext will provide you with magnification and screen reading during this process. I find this particularly helpful because the color contrast on the Windows logon screens is horrible for me to see.

The Color Enhancement feature is another great tool found in Zoomtext. It allows users to choose from several different preset color schemes, or you can create your own customized color enhancement. I like this because in writing documents, Microsoft Word uses a white screen with black text. For me, the white background creates too much glare and brightness. If I use Zoomtext, I can change my color enhancement to a black screen with white text. This is much more soothing to me with my eye condition and I can actually look at the screen for a longer period of time. Generally, I use a screen reader, but at times, I like the ability to look at the display screen.

Curser Enhancements allow you to choose from some preset curser shapes, or you can choose a shape and color that will fit your needs. I find it very difficult to locate the curser in documents, so having the ability to use a giant shape and color really makes the curser jump out on my display screen.

For those who used Zoomtext for a long time, you may remember the days when the Doc Reader was what we used as a reading tool. Back then, Doc Reader could only read Microsoft Word documents and email messages–it was not usable on web pages. Then, App Reader was developed and implemented into Zoomtext. App Reader allows you the ability to read text documents, email messages and web pages. This was quite the breakthrough upon its inclusion into Zoomtext.

These days, you can still use Doc Reader, but the difference is that when you use Doc Reader, the text is pulled into a separate Window and read to you. Once in this window, you can change the size, color and font of the text and you can also change the rate of the reading speed. App Reader does not pull your text into a new window, but rather, it utilizes a block shape that moves along as each word is read aloud. This makes it easy to locate a point in a document and makes it easy if a sighted person is following along as you work.

I highly recommend Zoomtext to someone who is struggling with low vision for their computer use. It is easily customized to fit your needs and once you have it all set up, you can save your settings so that each time you turn on your computer, Zoomtext will run using your settings and you can get right to the computer tasks that you need to accomplish with no interruption from Zoomtext.

Happy New Year everyone!

I must say that over the years, I feel that Ai Squared has done a fine job adding features to Zoomtext that are useful and easy to understand and operate.

New in Zoomtext 10 is a feature called Background Reader. This feature makes it possible for users to have Zoomtext read selected text to you while you are working in another program. This is the first feature I’m aware of that lets you multi task with assistive technology. You could be writing an email and having specific text read to you as you work.

Another awesome feature of Zoomtext 10 is the Zoomtext Recorder. This feature allows users to have specific text recorded and then read back to them using their mobile or portable device. This is especially useful for those people who have long commutes each day that have lots of text they need to read to prepare for their work day. You can have the text read to you with Windows Media player right on your computer, or you can have the text read on your MP3 player, or Apple device. It all works quite easily and intuitively.

The AppReader feature has been part of Zoomtext now for several years and is a great way to have text read back to you. I like to use it to proofread my Microsoft Word and email documents before I submit or send these documents out. With Zoomtext 10, there is a new feature called Read from Pointer, which means you can have AppReader read from where ever you’ve positioned your mouse pointer. This can be especially useful in situations where a blinking curser does not exist, like on a web page. Instead of hearing all kinds of miscellaneous text, you can move the pointer to your desired starting point and have AppReader start in that location.

Another feature which has existed in Zoomtext for a while is called Focus Enhancement. I like this feature very much because when you enable it, Zoomtext places a shape around where the computer is focused. For example, if you are navigating menu items, each item will have a red outline drawn around it. As you move from item to item, the red outline moves with you. You can change the look of the enhancement to make it easier for you to see, but it really draws your eyes to the location.

If you are a proficient mouse user, then you will appreciate the Pointer Enhancement feature of Zoomtext, as well. This feature allows you to pick a mouse pointer size, color and other items to make the pointer easy to locate and follow as you work on your computer. After you install Zoomtext, if you enable the pointer enhancement, you will have a yellow pointer which is placed in the center of a red cross. As you move the pointer, the red cross and pointer move with you. If you prefer a different setting, you can go into the Zoomtext control panel and pick a different pointer scheme, or you can customize the pointer to fit your specific needs.

Has anyone else tried out the new Zoomtext? Let us hear your impressions in the Reader’s Forum.

A few weeks ago, Ai Squared released Zoomtext version 10. You can purchase Zoomtext Magnifier, which will give you all of the magnification and screen enhancements. If you need all of these enhancements and more, you can purchase Zoomtext Magnifier/Reader, which will give you the ability to also use a host of screen reading features. New in Zoomtext ten, is the ability to connect and use an HD Webcam to act as a CCTV. This will work if you use the magnifier or the magnifier/reader version of Zoomtext.

After starting the software, the Zoomtext Control Panel appears on the screen. There is a menu bar containing all of the options you may choose. If you go to the left side of the Control Panel, you will notice the Zoomtext logo. To the right of this logo there are three buttons labeled as follows–Magnifier, Reader and Tools. These buttons can be clicked with the mouse, which then causes several buttons to be displayed under one of these three main buttons. For example, if you click the magnifier button, then under the magnifier button you will see the following choices–Power, Type, Color, Pointer, Curser, Fonts, Desktop, Web and Text. These are all of the options you can change under the Magnifier button. If you click on the Reader button, the options will then change to Rate, Typing, Mouse, Verbos, App. Reader, Doc Reader, Zones and Speak it.

Zoomtext can be adjusted with the use of a mouse or by learning keyboard shortcuts. In either case, the manual is well written and gives you step by step instructions for learning to use the many features of Zoomtext. If you have a hard copy of the manual, note that it is written in large print and for each tool mentioned, a color photo is provided to show you the tool next to its description. The range of magnification that you can use with Zoomtext is from 1x to 36x. Even if you were to put the magnification all the way up to 36x, the display you see is still crisp and clear. You can have Zoomtext magnify the entire screen or you can have it magnify portions of the screen. This is useful for those who have loss of vision in a particular field of their eye. For example, you could have Zoomtext only magnify the left portion of the screen. This would be helpful for someone who only had usable vision out of the left portion of their left eye.
Stay tuned for the next article which will discuss more features found in Zoomtext.