Cameron Scott
Equinox Staff
Computer screens, phones and smart boards; what do these things all have in common? Well, I can’t see any of them unless I get within six inches from them.
For a student without a visual impairment it is as easy as looking at the board from where they are seated. For me it is a whole different story, it would not matter if I am in the front rows of desks in the classrooms. So you are probably wondering how I get around this and it is simple. I don’t mainly rely on voice when taking notes in classes and if needed I will take a picture of the board with my phone but most of the time that is not even enough.
After taking the picture I will have to zoom the picture about 400 percent just to see things on the board. That sounds like a lot of steps, but it is just something you get to after being visually impaired your whole life. When using my computer at home or in my dorm I have larger monitors than usual. The monitors I currently have are 32 inches in width and they are curved giving me a unique field of view. I have two of the same monitors stacked up on top of each other to make it easier to see both.
You would think having such big monitors would keep me more than six inches away from the screen but not so, it is still the same for text at least. For pictures and videos, it is a different story. I can be 6 feet away from the screen and still see them clearly. When it comes down to anything text-related such as reading articles, taking online tests and even viewing text within videos it is still six inches due to the fact that text is something harder for me to read even if it is all the way enlarged.
Another thing that helps me out is having a backlit keyboard so I can see every key clearly. All my keys are rgb [Keyboard colors range Red, Green, Blue] meaning that they can change to any color.
You are probably wondering how I am able to record videos about video games and it is simple, I am really bad at every game that I play from Grand Theft Auto to Minecraft. There is no game I will not fail at. Some typical comments I find on my channel are like, “Did you see this guy miss those things that were clearly in view?”
When I read these comments I just have to laugh because they have no idea. There are even times that I will say a completely different word than what is displayed on screen and this is not being dyslexic. It comes down to the fact that I am left to guess a lot of things that quickly pop up on screen since it takes me a bit longer to read things.
Overall, I am making the best of my visual impairment and I hope I can encourage others in a similar situation where they cannot overcome something that there is always a way.
Cameron Scott can be contacted at:
cscott@kscequinox.com
