Accessibility for Blind/ VIP diabetics

I am due to start the DAFNE course tomorrow, WITH MY MUM!!
I was tld that the DAFNE course information isn't availible in any other format other than print. I ws told I couldn't do the course as there was printed material to read, then when I told them I could have it converted into a format that my computer could read I was told there was calculations to do too! Shock horror!! a blind person doing maths?? Well I never!
I mean DUH! I'm blind not stupid!

After a bit of discussion they finally said I could do it but in a one to one course... With my mum!
I'm 29 years old and I was wanting to do this course so I could be a wee bit more independant.

What I wanna know is why a blind or visually impaired diabetic can't do this course in a group setting like any sighted person would? we have the ways and means, technology has come on a bit over the years.

Obviously the printed material was printed from a computer? right? so why couldn't this be sent as a word doc or PDF file to the blind or visually impaired persons computer? easy!

I was told it wasn't availible in these formats, is this true?

Hi, no its not true. There is a web version on this site that you could use although sadly its not fully compliant with VIP standards. There is also a PDF version that is not generally available but I'm sure we could get permission to send to you.
With regards to doing the course there is no reason that you cannot do it. Generally there is very little reading needed and any that is could be done for/with you by someone else on the course. One of the best parts of the course it's interacting with other diabetics which you will sadly miss out on.
Sorry but it sounds like NHS political correctness that they are not letting you do the course with others, which is a great shame. They probably aren't allowed to call you blind either just like diabetes UK want to call us people with diabetes and not diabetics. As you rightly say you are not stupid so why not let you integrate with others that understand your diabetes.
Anyway, rant over. If we can do anything to help let us know

Day one and I'm finding it all ok but was wondering if I could get the book that gives the carb portions as a pdf or pref word doc?
the carb counter on this site is accessible but there isn't as much info as in the book.
I'm currently looking for other ways to help me count carb, i know there is an iphone ap that reads label, OCR but way too expensive.. i'm just wondering what i do when i'm out on my own and can't read labels or judge a portion size. Hmmm
thanks for your quick response.

hi, the card counting book is available in PDF, you can access it by clicking here Its true I dropped the accompanying text from the book and on occasion had to abbreviate the descriptions to fit into the web format. With regards to reading labels when out, in an ideal world all food will have what are called '2D barcodes' on it. This is the new kind of barcode that contains more than just a number but can contain a lot of text allowing things like product details and extra information. At the moment these are used as gimics and contain links to websites etc but could be used for a lot more. There are free readers for these in the app store. Anyway enough of the techno babble, hopefully the PDF version will help and the course is going well.

Faulty Headlights said:
Day one and I'm finding it all ok but was wondering if I could get the book that gives the carb portions as a pdf or pref word doc?
the carb counter on this site is accessible but there isn't as much info as in the book.
I'm currently looking for other ways to help me count carb, i know there is an iphone ap that reads label, OCR but way too expensive.. i'm just wondering what i do when i'm out on my own and can't read labels or judge a portion size. Hmmm
thanks for your quick response.

I finally gave in and bought an iphone. Coss me an arm and a leg, most of my savings gone but I am now using DAFNE ap on it to record my sugars and it has the carb counter on it too. I can download my results ok from the computer to iphone but am havng trouble getting it to upload from my iphone to computer. so some of my results are stuck on my iphone ap. other than that it is a great job. I can use my iphone with the voice over fine, all seems to work great. I haven't used any other carb counting aps as i'm not sure which are accessible and don't want to fork out more money for something that might not work. and like I said above, the online DAFNE carb counter is limited.

I was told recently that there is a talking pump coming on the market in 2015? but when I mentioned this to my hospital I was told that they didn't deal with the company who made them. So after all that hope and research I'm maybe not going to get the chance of getting one? Grrr! I'm sure i'm not the only blind or visually impaired person pi**ed off at this.
After years of hearing about other people being given pumps and being told I couldn't use one because i'm blind I had got kind of excited when I heard about this new talking one, now my hopes seem to be dashed again.

I probably should be posting this on another topic but hope to hear from other blind and VIP type 1's on here.

Who makes this pump?

I don't see why you cant get it, unless it was significantly more expensive then the rest [pump and consumables].........but even then it should still be considered/investigated.......

Make sure your connected to a wireless router at home or elsewhere when uploading, you might be more successful, however I do know ppl have been having problems.......

It's a company called Pancreum. I got an email back from them not so long ago. they are the only company to answer any of my questions.
I'm using a wifi connection and i'm still on able to upload, just download.

Hi there,
I haven't had this issue with the iPhone app before but tend to use the full site on my Mac or iPad.
I have had a quick check in my app and in "Settings" (the bottom right icon) there is an option for Diary Upload. Mine is currently set to OFF, maybe yours is too? If so, changing it to ON, may solve your upload issues?
Also,I;m not sure if you've checked this out already but in the DAFNE Online Mobile forum there is a thread about issues with downloading to the app but I'm sure it also talks about uploading.
See link: http://www.dafneonline.co.uk/forums/5/topics/1470

Hope this has helped in some way

Cheers,
Anele.

I have it set to on and it doesn't seem to make a difference. my wifi signal is good too. will have a look at other posts and see what they say. want to be able to keep a record whilst on the move so won't have my laptop with me everywhere, that's why i'm using the iphone ap.
cheers ears.