[Mt-blind] GPS for the Blind

Thu May 8 13:09:53 CDT 2008

Good training is indeed essential.  Heather, you're right to bring this
point back into focus.  I am lucky enough to understand and apply technology
rather quickly so long as the information is accessible.  It's pretty hard
to self-train on anything if you cannot get at the materials like sighted
people can.  Practice is also essential.  One of the things I realized about
my GPS system was that I needed to be in a moving vehicle to realize what it
could do.  I also needed to be in unfamiliar places.  For example, I
discovered through using the built-in help that I could find out which
highway I was on during a recent trip in California.  That's a big deal when
one is traveling longer distances.  Another feature I realized through
practice in the real world was that I could quickly run through all the
turns a planned route set up for me.  That helps a lot when the car has to
make several quick turns.  The GPS actually tells me how many feet or miles
between turns.

Sendero has a deal going in which they are collecting user points of
interest, called POI, for college campuses.  The University of Montana is
already well marked, but the map used for the marking has to be over 10
years old.  It talks about some campus grass fields that are now buildings,
for example.  This summer, I am going to mark POI on campus.  For instance,
I will mark entrances to buildings such as the west door to University Hall.
Then I will send these POI to Sendero so that they will be available to
everyone using their products.  Trekker may have a similar option, and they
may be able to share the Sendero POI.

-------
Jim Marks
blind.grizzly at gmail.com

-----Original Message-----
From: mt-blind-bounces+blind.grizzly=gmail.com at nfbnet.org
[mailto:mt-blind-bounces+blind.grizzly=gmail.com at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
Heather Stone
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 11:45 AM
To: Montana Association for the Blind List
Subject: Re: [Mt-blind] GPS for the Blind

The top middle part of the Trekker unit consists of 4 rows of 3 small
circular buttons & works just like a phone pad. You cycle thru one # & 3
letters per button when using the keys to spell out destination names,
streets, etc. A validation key locks in each # & letter you choose. Or you
can use the toggle key to use the buttons to input in Braille. This feature
is sort of like a Braille N Speak - it is not a refreshable Braille display.
You can also do a partial search by street name, city &/or category. You
just need to press another button to hear the address, phone #, etc for a
destination or you can add in the information yourself, like for stores that
have moved, etc. It is true that these devices do come with an instruction
manual but for some it is easier to understand than for others. The Missoula
based O+M felt the instructions for Trekker were written in "German" & when
I took it on to learn it, I found several steps about entering information
were lacking
- like it was assumed the user would know how to do it. At the Leader Dog
training, they covered everything in 3 days that it had taken me 3 months to
figure out how to do & then the last 2 days I learned a lot more things
about Trekker & several shortcuts.
As with any training, once you get home, you need to constantly practice
using it fairly often so that it becomes natural. Jim Marks, you & I both
know Jeff Senge. He was in my Trekker class & had come to it because he has
had so many visually impaired/blind college students come thru his office
all excited about their GPS but after a few weeks, they are always so
frustrated with it because the instructions did not help much with getting
the user efficiently using the software/device. He was at the CSUN
technology fair & hearing the vendors like they always do - promoting the
GPS's like you just turn them on & go & then he heard Harold's Abraham's
Leader Dogs presentation for their training & after completing it himself,
he was very impressed with it. Perhaps, you should talk further with him
about this topic.
--- Jim Marks <blind.grizzly at gmail.com> wrote:

> Very cool!  Does the Trekker come with a keyboard of some sort?  I 
> wonder how you type information to generate the information with the 
> Trekker.
> 
> The Trekker Breeze, which was just released this spring, may be a good 
> option for some.  It's sort of a Trekker light.
> Yes,  that is a beer
> analogy, folks.  The Breeze touts its simplicity. 
> It gives users
> information about your location, but it does not permit the more 
> sophisticated features that the full fledged Trekker does.  If someone 
> is looking for a device to use for walking or driving around, it would 
> do the trick nicely.  Truth is, using the Trekker or the system I use, 
> the Braille Note PK and Sendero GPS, is fairly complicated.  It took 
> me a while to figure out how to use my system well enough to guide my 
> driver in heavy big-city vehicle traffic.  Heather's information about 
> training is a vital component of this technology.  However, one might 
> be able to use the Breeze right out of the box without too much 
> trouble.  And everything comes with good training materials, too.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -------
> Jim Marks
> blind.grizzly at gmail.com
>  
> 
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