Sendero Group Travel Blog

Follow Sendero travelers on their adventures using accessible GPS.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

 

Stevie Wonder launches GPS system By Michael Field

Stevie Wonder launches GPS system
By MICHAEL FIELD - Fairfax Media | Thursday, 30 October 2008
JOHN SELKIRK/Fairfax Media
IN WONDER: All Ese Aumalesulu wanted to do when he met fellow blind singer and idol Stevie Wonder was to hold his dreads.
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE: Stevie Wonder speaks at the launch of a GPS device for blind people at a function in Auckland.
MEET AND GREET: Stevie Wonder meets Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind chairman Don McKenzie and his guide dog Senna.
Mike May shows off GPS software designed to be used by the blind.
ALL SMILES: Stevie Wonder smiles at the launch of a New Zealand version of the GPS system for the blind.

American superstar Stevie Wonder loves technology and what it can do for the blind.

"It's a feeling of being independent," he told an Auckland gathering to launch a New Zealand version of a GPS system for blind users.

A Californian company, Sendero Group, developed the remarkable device which not only gives voice directions to its blind users, but is also a powerful internet linked computer.

Wonder is an old friend of Sendero founder Michael May who confessed he used the launching of the New Zealand version of the GPS system to catch the star's Christchurch and Auckland concerts.

It coincided with Blind Week, the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind's annual appeal.

As a measure of his fan quality, May said Apple iPods have only, in the last month, become blind accessible after lawsuits in the United States.

He got one and the first thing he loaded up was 585 of Stevie's songs.

Wonder, a big user of technology, said he wanted to spread the message of accessibility for the blind. Video of event and Stevie Wonder's speech

"It is so very important in the sighted world and those in the various places of technology understand that by doing this you are getting a kind of freedom you cannot even imagine."

Technology was making life easier while being fascinating and exciting.

"It's a wonderful thing. Life is about creating joy and making things better."

May's own story is as remarkable as Wonder's. Video of Mike May's Speech

He was blind for 43 years and yet managed to clock a world record speed skiing record - more than 100 kph - got married and had children, changing nappies from the day they were born.

Then came the day the Californian, blind from the age of three, was given the option of getting back his sight and seeing his wife Jennifer for the first time.

Did it ever worry him, as the bandages came off, that he might not like the way Jennifer looked?

"This was the fear of a lot of my female friends and family," he told Fairfax Media.

She wasn't worried and nor was he.

"She was self confident about that, the real beauty of the moment, was that she was there to share the new images with me.

"I knew exactly what she looked like, there was no revelation."

The one eye that gives Mr May 20/80 vision is nearly perfect anatomically, but he cannot see detail as well and still uses a cane or a guide dog.

The GPS system, which fits onto a Braille interfaced and sound enabled device that also provides internet and email, gets the user into the vicinity of where they are going.

"It doesn't make me a blind robot," he said, adding the vision impaired were happy with cane or dog.

The Sendero devices come with "a look around mode" that announces to users what is around, without the need to enter commands.

"The number one challenges is no longer the technology, it's the affordability."

In a country like New Zealand 70 percent of the blind were unemployed and a GPS device cost between $1000 and $10,000.

"It's really important to get funding to help purchase these things; the cost is the barrier now.

"It's like buying a car for a job; this isn't something I am doing to find the local pub, this is so I have the independence to get a job, change a job, to do things with my family, its part of my whole life navigation system."

He lost his vision in a chemical explosion but said he had long come to terms with it.

"In fact it is more about living life to its fullest," he said.

"If one has a good family, a good job, feels good about themselves and all of those positive things, it doesn't matter if you are blind or sighted.

"Being able to see, for me, is icing on the cake, it wasn't something I really felt I needed to do."

Stevie Wonder performs at Vector Arena tonight.

Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

Archives

August 1997   January 1998   August 1999   December 1999   January 2000   September 2004   October 2004   November 2004   December 2004   March 2005   May 2005   July 2005   August 2005   September 2005   November 2005   May 2006   June 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   July 2007   August 2007   September 2007   October 2007   November 2007   December 2007   January 2008   February 2008   March 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   October 2008   January 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   December 2009   January 2010   March 2010   April 2010   July 2010   October 2010   December 2010   February 2011   May 2011   July 2011   September 2011   October 2011   November 2011   January 2012   February 2012   March 2012   April 2012   May 2012   July 2012   August 2012   October 2012   November 2012   December 2012   January 2013   March 2013   June 2013   July 2013   August 2013   September 2013   October 2013   November 2013   December 2013   January 2014   March 2014   April 2014   August 2014   September 2014   October 2014   November 2014   December 2014   February 2015   July 2015   August 2015   September 2015   November 2015   December 2015   January 2016   January 2017   September 2018   November 2018  

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?