Looking for volunteers to give feedback on how to talk about technology — Scope | Disability forum
Please read our updated community house rules and community guidelines.

Looking for volunteers to give feedback on how to talk about technology

Chloe_Scope
Chloe_Scope Posts: 10,586 Disability Gamechanger

At Scope we’re exploring how we talk about developments in technology in more engaging and relevant ways for our audiences.

To this end we’ve created two videos made by a team of volunteers, who are disabled people or people that have experience of technology and disability, and we want your views about the idea and how it might develop into an interesting and useful resource.


To view the two videos click on the following links:

Seeing AI (subtitled)

Video for Alexa and Google Home


Please complete our quick online chatbot conversation; 

Chatbot conversation;

We really appreciate your feedback and value your opinions. 

Any questions, please contact Liz Roberts at researchpanel@scope.org.uk

Scope

Comments

  • Topkitten
    Topkitten Community member Posts: 1,285 Pioneering
    I worked in IT for almost 25 years and it is difficult to generate videos which will answer people's questions because most people need individual answers. Trying to spot the 5% they need within a video or generalised description is difficult for most people and, from my more recent experience, even harder for disabled people. Everyone, without exception, feels that their problem is unique in much the same way we feel our suffering is unique.

    I am open to being contacted by people but often people's descriptions are hard to understand simply because they are inexperienced or have been taught in a specific way that is an individual's opinion rather than a standard methodology.

    My son asked me once to explain how a computer works at the hardware level and I basically went through the history of how it was developed and used some industry standards in my descriptions. When his tutor at college made a small error he spoke to him after the others had gone and explained why his description was incorrect. His tutor blew up at him and even stated that something factual didn't exist. He contacted me and asked me how to explain better but he never did get it sorted because I had taught him things the tutor had never been taught and he simply wouldn't accept my son's explanation rather than admit his mistake. This is why it is sometimes very difficult to clarify and help people on anything but an individual basis.

    TK
    "I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell" - from Wrong side of heaven by Five Finger Death Punch.
  • April2018mom
    April2018mom Posts: 2,882 Disability Gamechanger
    My partner works in IT. He is interested in technology opportunities for disabled people including children and babies too. It is very challenging to make videos that are capable of answering any questions because many respondents tend to provide individualist answers. Attempting to see what they need in a video or general discussion might be too much for some people with vision issues.

    However the majority should be able to answer the questions properly and carefully too. Just be aware of that when reading the responses and answers to your discussion questions regarding technology. It is a good idea but perhaps consider making the survey more inclusive and simple too. Also think about incorporating captions and oral explanations within the videos as well. 
  • Topkitten
    Topkitten Community member Posts: 1,285 Pioneering
    The difficulty of simple answers is this.....

    My son did a Windows update on his mum's machine. After that the machine would run for a short time after switching on and then freeze.

    Take a moment before reading on to think of what could have happened.

    Ok, he has been through a network course as well as the usual teaching that kids get and I have taught him to build desktop computers to. Along with explaining the most common problems. Even his quite competent and experienced descriptions made it difficult to understand the possible problem but I did have a good idea and asked him to bring it round. He brought it and plugged it into my setup and turned it on, within a few minutes it froze and it was what I suspected. I tried to get him to run through the possibilities and he did so but missed it. There was one thing he missed out in his description and it was the most important.

    It could have been the update and it was in a way but not because of the software update itself.

    It could have been a driver issue as these can happen during updates but it wasn't that either.

    It could have been a temperature issue but it wasn't that either.

    It could have been a fault with the display itself (hardware error) but again it wasn't.

    He suggested all these and a couple of simpler things like a switch not being correctly attached properly or a cabling issue between the computer and the router but he still didn't get it.

    What he missed was a very small sound and the best way I can describe it is the sound of a needle falling a short distance (about an inch or 25mm) onto a metal surface. Missing that sound and not describing it was the difference between solving immediately and waiting a couple of days.

    What it was was a hard disk failure on a fairly new disk only 9 months old. The additional software installed pushed it into using a bad sector on the disk and attempting to access that sector caused the noise and stopped ALL disk access instantly resulting in a freeze. Unfortunately most people building machines and even manufacturers do not do a proper full format when putting systems together, they use quick format options. We reformatted the drive and reinstalled and the system worked fine for a month at which point his mum could afford a new disk and he reinstalled again and then it was fine until the next problem. For me, my experience allowed me to spot it the first time it happened and because I know how the hardware works properly. My son knows it well enough to build and sort most build issues but still doesn't have the experience to instantly KNOW the reason for problems.

    This sort of thing can happen to anyone, even with experience, and it is really dependant on the accuracy of the description that allows problems to be rectified. To try to put together a video or even a series to explain anything except the simplest issues is very very difficult.

    However, there is one thing that anyone can do which will improve the chance of not losing information when having problems and that is to separate the hard disk into 2 or more sections (drives) and storing data on the extra drive(s) created. Backing up these to a thumb drive makes it almost guaranteed. Saving data onto a single drive C setup is the worst thing people can do and is much harder to back up to a thumb drive unless that person knows where data is stored.

    I am writing this on a Chromebook which is much safer than a Windows system but I still added extra memory as a drive and copy data to it just in case. A little up-front thinking can save a lot of heartbreak.

    TK
    "I'm on the wrong side of heaven and the righteous side of hell" - from Wrong side of heaven by Five Finger Death Punch.
  • fionah
    fionah Community member Posts: 7 Listener
    A robotic vacuum cleaner would be a godsend to many sick and disabled people because the task is too strenuous or impossible. Aside from IT I'd say this is an example of a need to embrace technology.

    Who here uses one? You can tell a robotic vacuum would be life changing for me.
  • Scope_Panel_Manager
    Scope_Panel_Manager Community member Posts: 1 Connected

    Hi @Topkitten

    Scope are running a workshop in London to get feedback on current product development and co-creation techniques. Scope's ambition is to ensure future technology and the people designing it, are aware of and equipped to better address the needs, wants and wishes of disabled people.  This will support us in providing guidance to technology businesses and how they can co-create.  

    The Scope workshop will be held at our London head office, Here East Press Centre, 14 East Bay Lane, E15 2GW on Thursday 11th October (times will be shared by email). As a thank you we will be offering a £50 e-gift card for your time and support. 

    Please get in contact if this sounds like something you would be interested in attending. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in contact with myself (Liz) by emailing researchpanel@scope.org.uk or by calling 020 7619 7150.

    Elizabeth Roberts
    Panel Manager

    Scope

    Here East Press Centre, 14 East Bay Lane, E15 2GW.

    Phone: 020 7619 7150

    Click here to join Scopes Research Panel 


  • victoriafinney
    victoriafinney Community member Posts: 22 Connected
    Shame the links are gone. Ex telephony services engineer. I have my own take. Im also a qualified sound technician! (What can I say. I get bored easily... And you can't have too many up to date quals!)

Brightness

Disclaimer


Our website contains links to third parties’ websites for your information only.

We have no control over the content of those sites or resources and we don’t endorse or accept liability for the content of them.

Read the full Terms and Conditions and our Community House Rules.