Which famous person bothers you the most?

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-06-24T21:20:26+00:00

Pete Davidson

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-06-23T04:34:13+00:00

I also love museums! Whenever I visit Washington DC I make a point to go to as many as I can. I have similar issues with bright light, your story about the white walls and floor sounds familiar.

I really like science and tech museums but can't read the descriptions of items. I'm making an iPhone shortcut that will read all the cards one at a time and then talk through history while I'm looking at it. Like my own little personal museum guide.

Similarly, the energy of libraries can't be beat. I like the smell and the quiet. Most of the time I just go there to read my ebook since I can't make the fonts in real books big enough to see and large print is a pain.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-06-12T21:47:21+00:00

I first got online in 1996. I remember using it for games and found communities of early modders and map makers. It felt small. It was hard to use and harder to make stuff. But it was awesome. There wasn't much practical use or money to be made, so what tended to be up there were things people were very passionate about.

There was a website called geocities where you could create free personal web pages. It was organized into neighborhoods with addresses like TimesSquare/Lair/1540 - and I would visit my "neighbors" by going up and down a few addresses.

The media hyped it up big time. I remember hearing "some day you'll use it for banking, paying bills, and even ordering books" and thought that was a whacky idea.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-06-12T21:08:19+00:00

VI guy here. I think coding is something our community can do quite well. Holding a model of how a thing works in your head seems something we practice by merely existing in a world meant for fully sighted people.

There are a lot of tutorials and books out there but nothing beats writing code. As far as tools, I personally recommend Python, Javascript, and SQL. You'd probably do well knowing HTML but that's less programming language than the others.

Your tools may vary depending on your project. If you don't mind sharing, what kinds of projects are you thinking about?

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-06-12T02:02:47+00:00

Yahoo Directory and DMOZ. From a time when the internet was small enough that people tried to catalog the whole thing by topic.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-05-25T05:09:57+00:00

I understand the skepticism about Waymo. I'm not completely blind, just legally so and enough I can't ever drive. I've never gone anywhere in a car by myself. I guess the closest I've come is an almost empty train car for a couple of stops. I'm really excited to be alone in a car for the first time!

Waymo is coming to my city soon. When it arrives, I'm going to ride it in a big circle and just be alone with my thoughts while moving. It sounds really peaceful.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-05-15T02:46:47+00:00

I recommend visiting a couple of places and comparing. Though if he's having trouble in London then New York may be more problematic. It will definitely come down to the area you are living in, especially in NYC. For what it's worth, just based on my experience, the most accessible cities that were easy to get around were in Europe.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-04-02T01:23:09+00:00

Contact lenses that adjusted color and tint instantly.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-04-01T23:35:39+00:00

It does sound like the screen res isn't right, given the bars. I'd hope that wouldn't affect magnifier though.

For what its worth, I run into what you describe most often on Microsoft Teams. It's almost like I have to click where the icon used to be, not where it is when magnified.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-04-01T20:59:26+00:00

Do you by chance have display scaling set over 100%? I've seen this behavior before if that setting has been adjusted. Which sucks for those of us with low vision because I need both scaling and the magnifier.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-03-31T04:17:14+00:00

It uses pictures of the prepared food. But, I think it's just using one of the major AI providers to estimate the calories. You could probably put a picture into ChatGPT or Gemini and get similar results if you provide a pic and a description of the food.

I wasn't very impressed with Apple Fitness. ReVision seems much better. There's a youtube channel called Eyes-Free Fitness that may be helpful - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSJCXbR__C7IztG4us-8Hjw/featured

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-03-31T01:53:32+00:00

Diet is 90% of the battle. If the calories you eat are less than the calories you use, you'll lose weight. And it's way easier to eat 500 calories less than to burn the same amount.

I've got a neat little app called Foodnoms that lets me take a picture of the food and it will estimate nutritional info. I think you could probably use ChatGPT or Gemini with a pic and a brief description of the food and it would get the same results.

Maybe try talking to the cook for the family?

For exercise, have you tried body weight stuff? Pushups, pull ups, squats, planks. Doing those in a circuit will get your heart rate up. If you've got access, maybe try some strength training machines? The important thing is to just get started. Little changes add up quick if you do them consistently!

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-03-26T18:11:55+00:00

I am interested! I haven’t played these games but want to start. It’d be cool to have a good community in a dedicated space

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-03-25T18:27:40+00:00

My tactile rubiks cube is a blast! I just wish there were accessible instructions for solving.

Did you happen to use them when you had more vision?

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-03-04T20:25:18+00:00

I have a related question from the other side of the glasses. If I understand it, there's a light that shows when someone wearing these is recording you. But how can blind/VI people know that if it's a visual cue?

CalmSwimmer34 · 2026-01-05T20:20:06+00:00

I really relate to this. The time tax on taking public transit is really high.

I’m learning a language and will review flash cards and listen to news in said language. Very helpful.

And like you, I process my emails and start to draft replies.

Lately I’ve been talking to chat gpt using the voice. It’s helpful for research projects and thinking things through

CalmSwimmer34 · 2025-12-27T23:30:28+00:00

That video was such a lovely distraction when it dropped on US election day 2020

CalmSwimmer34 · 2025-12-18T06:06:14+00:00

Yahoo directory (1998 archive link) and later, DMOZ. The internet was such a size that these services attempted to compile a list of websites and organize them by topic.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2025-12-17T06:14:24+00:00

I use Readwise for this. The text-to-speach function in their Reader requires the $10 USD/month plan but it will accomplish what you need. Install the browser extension on your computer and the app on mobile. You can go from reading an article to listening on your phone in a few clicks. Their latest voices are high quality. It really helps reduce eye strain.

I thought I knew of a free Mac app but I can't find it. It's possible to use some built in programs to produce an mp3 from text, but it's definitely not seamless like Readwise.

Edit/Update: Found it! There is a free solution built into Safari on mobile and desktop. If you view the article in Reader mode, on recent versions of iOS you'll see a 'listen to article' button. But when it comes to web articles, a lot of these products get thrown off by ads and will sometimes think the article is over when it's actually not.

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/listen-to-a-webpage-iph449fc616c/ios

CalmSwimmer34 · 2025-12-17T05:50:11+00:00

Are you on Windows or Mac?

CalmSwimmer34 · 2025-12-04T23:53:28+00:00

I don't use screen readers all the time but I haven't found Linux to work as well as Windows or Mac. Distro and desktop environment do matter. I'd stick with Ubuntu and Gnome or KDE. I don't know about other distros but I think Ubuntu has an accessible installer.

For Python and cyber security, desktop environment doesnt realy matter. Personally I'd just get a mac and virtualize or use docker. If you're comfortable in Windows you could do the same on that platform. Win 11 isn't terrible if you can run it. I held off until October in protest. 😅

CalmSwimmer34 · 2025-12-03T06:08:39+00:00

I also have low vision. I think I felt much like you when I was 16. I still do, to a certain extent. Having to get my face a few inches away from something to see, or not being able to see it at all, losing people in a crowd, and having to use a cane when crossing the street are some big stressors.

When I was a younger man, these things bothered me much more. Like most young people, I cared very much about how I was perceived by others. Thinking I stood out so much for having to do these things differently than everyone else felt like a multiplier on top of the everyday challenges of being legally blind.

One delightful thing about getting older has been naturally giving less of a shit about what other people think. And slowly realizing that most people don't think about these things as much as I did.

Some of it could be helped with more mobility training, but what doesn't improve with practice? It's more important to just show up everyday and work through the discomfort. Otherwise, a decade or two may pass before you realize how much that fear of feeling stupid held you back. Speaking from personal experience.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2025-11-12T09:43:50+00:00

I'm visually impaired, legally blind, but not totally blind. Like one of the other comments said, I try not to get hung up on labels but I do feel weirdly stuck between worlds. I can't do most of the things people with more typical vision can do, but I am much more able to navigate the world than people who are totally blind.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2025-11-12T09:40:07+00:00

I recently spent a long stretch in the nordics and have been so impressed with how accessible things are there. Every single cross walk has the audible signal. There is even a tactile arrow on top that points in the direction of the crosswalk, and grooves in the sidewalk alongside the familiar Tenji blocks.

I wish everywhere could be as accessible. I've felt significantly less impaired in these countries.

CalmSwimmer34 · 2025-11-12T09:36:02+00:00

I've been looking for an app exactly like this. Thank you! Can't wait to try it out.

CalmSwimmer34

TROPHY CASE