Technology

I just saw one of those posts on Facebook, invariably posted by someone over the age of 40 (yes I fall into that category) saying something like "I'm glad I was a child before the internet and phones and other technology." Usually these posts have a picture of a minion on them (Am I the only person on the planet who hates the horrid yellow filter tip / earplug creatures?) any way this isn't about minions. It's about technology.

This weekend I spent a couple of hours with a group of 11 -17 year olds at their youth club talking about education, what they wanted to do when they leave school or college and what they like to do in their spare time. All of the young people had a visual impairment. What was interesting was that they really aren't that different from me at that age in many respects. They were into Dr Who, or the latest boy band, they had worries about how other people perceived their visual impairment, the older ones were coming to terms with the thought of not being able to drive.

But there was one huge difference between there childhood and mine. They could access their education so much more easily than me. They could read any book they wanted to. They could get around London (where they live) easily and independently. Where I had struggled to read the black board at school even when I sat underneath it, they had the information on the teachers smart screen sent straight to their iPads. Or if the teacher was using a non smart board, they just took a photo of it on their tablet and zoomed in to see what was what. The books they needed to read in school were available on their iPads too, so they could have them in large print or listen to them. For experiments in science lessons they used hand held CCTVs to magnify their apparatus and results.

Similarly when reading for pleasure there are countless audio books available or the kindle which allow you to enlarge the print to a size they can read.

When getting around London, the buses speak, telling them which stops they are at, the trains do the same too. Google street view means they can check out where they are going in advance so they know what obvious landmarks to look out for. Those with less sight use the google directions.

I am certainly one person who wishes that this modern technology had existed when I was a child.

Technology isn't the reason kids no longer play outside and roam across the countryside that comes down to two reasons the increase in traffic making it much more dangerous to be out crossing roads and our society's collective fear of strangers.