Navigating the Future: A Journey with Technology, From the 80s to 2025 and Beyond ๐ถโโ๏ธ๐ซ
In 2025 I will have spent a lifetime as a blind person living in a sighted world ๐. I learnt very early on that one thing that would help me was technology ๐ฒ. That has led to a forty-year love and hate relationship with Access/Assistive Technology ๐ง.
Technology has changed a lot since the mid-80s, but perhaps not as much as in the past two years ๐. Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, nothing has been the same โ with talk of end-of-the-world โdoomโ โ ๏ธ or a new โgoldenโ age ๐ fighting it out for the headlines every day. But while the world deals with these existential questions, blind people have been enjoying the benefits of the new technology ๐ค.
I am hoping to take delivery of one of the new Glidance mobility devices next year ๐ถโโ๏ธ. With it, Iโm planning to stroll up to my local coffee shop โ๏ธ for brunch with a girlfriend. Iโll have my phone with me, of course, an iPhone 17 Pro ๐ฑ. Because I am a โcool cookieโ ๐ช, Iโll be wearing sunglasses ๐, even if it isnโt sunny โ the next version of the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses by then ๐ถ๏ธ. When I was learning to use a long cane forty years ago I had nothing but the benefits of being a teenager ๐ง. The benefits of being a teenager are not to be underestimated when it comes to mobility โ if for very little else.
So, what will it be like? Walking the streets in 2025 with Glidance, an iPhone 17, and wearing Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses 2? ๐ค And what will it be like in 2035? Will I make it to fifty years in the dark? ๐ Will the world? Perhaps that question is too dark to answer here ๐, so tell me, what do you expect from Assistive Technology in the next ten years? ๐ฌ
#AssistiveTech #AccessibilityMatters #Blind #TechForGood #FutureOfMobility #AIRevolution #2025Vision #InclusionForAll #DisabilityAdvocacy #TechJourney
