Welcome to Can You Top This? from Be My Eyes. Each month we share the most unusual and inspiring stories from our community. Volunteer calls, Be My AI sessions, company support, and even calls through Meta AI Glasses. Do you think your story can top the rest? Tune in, get inspired, and discover how you can win amazing prizes.
Well, hi. Thank you for coming and being with us. It's good to meet you. Nice to meet you, Danielle. And where are you from? I am from Pakistan, but I am currently in the U.S. and I'm currently in New Jersey. Oh, nice. Eastern time. Eastern Sunday time. I actually was in New York for a few years and went to school in New Jersey, so I was probably right now where you are.
Yeah, I was in New York for about 12, 13 years. Oh, really? Okay. And then you left because the commute was... Yeah, because I got a job and my family was moving, so my studies were completed.
I graduated with my master's degree in 2018 in computer science, and that time I got a full-time job and my family was moving, so I think it was the right time to move. So we came to New Jersey, bought this house, and yeah, I've been living ever since here.
Lovely. So speaking of your job and computers and all of the things, tell me a little bit more about the submission that you put in. I know you mentioned that you were doing what used to be the impossible BIOS stuff with the glasses.
Yes, yes. It was a big hurdle every time we used to. So basically, I bought a used laptop and the secure boot was off, so I was not able to install any operating system.
And I am a computer engineer and developer, and I need virtualization because I do a lot of container-level work. So for example, I use some applications that use virtualization and virtual containers and things of that sort. I needed to enable that. So what I did was literally...
I was figuring out what to do, and suddenly I realized that I should try the volunteer call feature using my meta AI glasses. And that thing I tried. There was a little bit of hiccup over there. But overall, I think what I needed to do, it was accomplished.
And it was with a little bit of effort because, you know, there were lighting issues and things of that sort. Because the iPhone camera is much better, much superior quality compared to the glasses camera. But I think I went to the quite lit area and I was able to ask the, you know, virtual assistant to basically, or the volunteer to basically guide me through.
And I was just basically asking them to go to a particular menu, look for the following categories, and then see if you see those options in there or disabled. So I was literally, you know, like, quote, unquote, I was basically giving them a step-by-step direction to go and look for that. Because, you know, volunteers are really good. But, you know, sometimes they lack the knowledge that we are trying to ask them to.
So, of course, we need to be very, very knowledgeable and very educated so that we can guide them so that they can provide that useful information that we can, you know, get to that.
So, yeah, that was that. And yeah, it was accomplished. I was able to install the operating system afterwards. Once that feature got disabled, I was able to install the OS and I was able to do all of the things. So it was, it was like a 25 minute call, but I think it was worth spending time because, you know, I was able to do what I needed to do at that time.
So you were able to get through the BIOS. Did you do the OS installation with them as well? Or did you not need to do that?
No, I just, I just, yeah, I just did because the OS installation for now is quite accessible.
Yes.
Microsoft, it comes very, you know, like the screen reader, screen reader, the Microsoft built-in screen reader is very accessible.
Yeah, it is.
And it basically, it does provide, it does provide that, you know, extra information that we normally used to miss in the past. So it was quite accessible. All I needed to do is just, you know, get, get, get over from the, that BIOS configuration that was not accessible and not,
but no screen reader support was there. So I needed that information. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that was the only part I use for the, the volunteer for.
It's so incredible. Cause like, I, I mean, I remember setting up, trying to set up computers 10 years ago when I had just gotten out of school and you just couldn't, you could not do it.
If there was something in the OS you would have to get a sighted person. And then if you were trying to install an OS, you couldn't do it because narrator wouldn't turn on right away. And even the shortcuts were kind of unreliable. That's just a decade ago.
So yeah, it's, it's, it's, yeah. Technology has come a long way, come a long way. So, yep.
So do you use your glasses often or what kind of made you turn to them for this specifically, instead of trying to do the, like the phone game?
Yeah. So basically I use only glasses for when I feel like the, the, the, the glasses, the AI feature is not giving me good enough information.
For example, I can take a picture and it can describe to me and I can read it by, you know, like the, the limitation with that glasses is like,
if you want a very specific detail information, you have to be very patient and give a right command so that it can read the useful information in the, you know, in the, in character by character or slow it down so that I can understand.
Sometimes that, that is a challenge. Other than that, I think I use most of the time my glasses to, to, to figure out simple things like, you know, change, checking the color, you know, what, what, what, what color of shirt I'm going to be wearing today.
Or maybe, maybe, you know, like my computer screen goes blank and it doesn't, the screen reader doesn't respond.
So I can quickly take a picture and ask them to describe what the picture is or, you know, like things of that. So, so yeah, I use most of the time those, those type of scenarios, but with the, I have tried in the past, the, the volunteer feature with the, with my glasses, sorting the email and sorting the mail, the physical mail.
So that was, that was, that was quite quick because, I mean, I can take pictures and I can, I can read it to me.
It can read it to me and it takes a little bit more time, but I think with the, with the live volunteer that went where like literally five or seven minutes, I was able to do what I needed to do.
So yeah, I always use, I have in my back of, back of my mind, I use the, the volunteer feature when I feel like I need to be a little bit more productive or the information I need is not, is the AI isn't giving me.
So I just turn into the volunteer to, to get that information through the glasses camera.
Did it feel much more organic when you were using the glasses with the volunteers than it used to have to be when you were like using a phone or something?
Oh yeah, it was the hands-on experience is excellent.
I mean, that this, the only thing I liked with the, with the glasses is like, you know, you don't have to hold on to this device.
You just say, Hey, meta, call a volunteer.
And it basically, you know, gets you connected and tells you the camera glasses are being used.
And yeah, the whole experience I have, I have experienced the broken experience and you know, like the less, less accessible experience.
And now where this, this thing is that, that it provides really good user experience, you know, to the end user.
So yeah, that, that the hand-free experience I think is the, is the key there is the key there.
You don't need to hold on to your phone to, to move around.
You just, you know, you know, you know, position your head in a way so that if whatever information they need, they can tell you to, to move left and right.
And then you've got the information.
And how easy was it for you to kind of learn how to move your head in ways that volunteers could see?
Did that kind of come naturally to you or did that, was that a little bit of a learning curve?
Oh, it was a learning curve bit at the beginning when I was in the beta program, because I, the camera is in the left place, in the left side of the, right?
Mm-hmm . Right. So you have to make sure that you, you adjust yourself. So if you need some information, if you're looking in the center, you have to little bit tilt your, to your right. So you capture all the things. And yeah, so I think I learned it. I learned it along the way when I was using, started using the camera. Yeah.
Is there any, like, I mean, I had the same experience as you, because it was right around that same time that I was getting used to them as well. I remember, I don't know if you had this, but I definitely thought when I got them that there was a camera on each side.
At first, because it had. Oh yeah. That was my initial impression, but. Yeah. That, I thought that was, that would have been cool. If the camera was on both sides, you just center your head, you just, you know, to, you know, stage your head and that's it. It can capture the entire frame. But that wasn't the case. I was told that on the right hand side, there's an LED. If you, if you, it's for, it's for the, you know, like for, for, for, for, you know, basically getting, getting other people aware that you're, you're recording or you're recording
or taking a picture thing, you know, just for, for their privacy sake. And if you cover it, it's not going to do, it's not going to work at all. So. Exactly. I will learn later on. Yeah. But I, that was my initial impression when I was opening up the glasses that, you know, the camera is on both sides. And that's cool.
So what would you tell blind folks now? Like folks who were, because there are so many people who are just starting to use glasses and just starting to get a learning curve of it. Like in terms of learning how to guide, how to direct your head and how to kind of wear them in a live environment and aim them well. Is there anything that you learned that you wish you'd known sooner that you would share with other blind folks who might be just in that same place?
Yeah. So if they're aware of the cameras on the left side, they just need to make sure that when they're looking at someone you, they need to, they need to adjust, at least they need to adjust their heads position so that they are capturing the frame. So it is, if they, if they are aware of the cameras on the left hand side, they always need to tilt a little bit to the right to make sure that you're looking at the right rather than looking straight ahead.
Right. Yeah. So that's, that's the only key there. Yeah. Just, just make sure that, you know, because the camera is on the, on the left hand side, you just need to, uh, tilt a little bit to the right to, to, to capture the center of the frame. That's it. Yeah. That's what I, just a little to the right of what you hear.
Yeah, exactly. Rather than just, just, just rather than looking straight ahead. Yeah. If you look straight ahead, you might, you might get a frame that, you know, that, that has, uh, the right hand side bit off.
So you want to cover that or adjust that. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Just putting the camera slightly to the kind of moving your head slightly to the right of center so that that left camera gets the view. That makes a lot of sense.
Exactly. Yep. You can, um, the center of the frame. Yep. And did you learn, did you notice anything with like your head being tipped up or down? If that made a big difference when you were first learning how to use the angles of the glasses camera?
Oh, not really. I don't know, but that I'd never experienced that. You know, I was looking down or upwards, uh, that never happened. I think, uh, I, maybe it's my tendency of looking up straight, even though I don't have useful vision. I mean, I, I, I, I was a sighted person. So before losing my vision, I knew how to basically interface with people with the facing straight up.
And that, that, that made very well be my, my conscious level. Uh, but I think, uh, uh, I would, um, you know, ever since now, after losing my vision from last good 20 years now, it's been, uh, yeah, about 20 years now over a little bit over 20 years.
So I, I, I, every time someone speaks to me, even though I can't see them at all, I, I will always look towards where the sound is coming from. So I, my face will be always up. Yeah. So I don't know. It's, it's, it may be because the way I, the way I perceive things or with my head position, I never had, uh, initially when I started using the glasses, I, it was only left and right that I need to adjust.
But yeah, the up and down wasn't the problem for me. Yeah.
So you went blind shortly after coming to the U S.
Yeah. I actually, uh, it was a tragic thing. Uh, in 2005, uh, and May, 2000, May 31st, 2005, I was working in Atlanta, Georgia.
And, uh, uh, uh, uh, laundromat drop-off station where that, you know, you basically gather, uh, you know, clothes and, uh, you just tag them and you take it to the, uh, take it to the, uh, take it to the plant where they clean all the stuff.
So I was there and, uh, I think one evening around 6 PM, uh, I think it was summer, uh, summer of 2005, May 31st. And, uh, I was robbed, uh, the, you know, two gunmans came, uh, to, to rob me.
And, uh, but they, they robbed me and they actually, uh, you know, fired a gunshot on my, they were, they're pointing, they were pointing my head.
Uh, they were, the gun was pointed toward my head. I shook the head in a way that you, that it was, it was on my temple.
the the the gun was on my temple i shook the head in a way so that the the the point became from my
head to the underneath my left eye so they fired a gunshot there the bullet went through my left eye
in an angle went through my nose and went through my right eye so yeah that was that was the injury
i got and after that injury uh the the point of impact uh that eye the left eye was was was there
it was quite severely damaged the right eye was completely gone so they removed the right eye
they put the prestigios in uh and the left eye they actually did the surgery but they told me on the
the surgery day or after i do the checkup it went for the checkup they told me that my optic nerve was
quite severely damaged and i will not be able to see it again and uh yeah that was that was that was
the issue that's how i lost my vision and i needed to readjust my life so yeah that's what i thought
so 23 year experience with with interfacing people talking to people i mean that's that's that may very
well be pointing that you know the way i position my head when i have a conversation or when i when i
look up so that that's the only gap so i think yeah i readjusted my life afterwards we we came to us and
basically i went through the entire uh you know vocational rehabilitation program and went through
college went through all those things and yeah what i see where i am now today is uh yeah it's because of
that whole thing yeah i had to readjust my life like i feel like the things i i i was i was wouldn't have
achieved while i was cited i was i was lucky enough to rediscover myself and re uh you know see myself in
a different in a different from a different view that you know all the the things that i had in my in
myself uh that were hidden because you know i was cited and i wasn't using them uh efficiently and after
right after getting that uh life readjustment i was able to see myself uh in myself some some things that
you know i was not efficiently using so i i actually i i always appreciate whatever life has given me i don't
uh yeah i i have no like zero regret but yeah it was an unfortunate thing that happened and it was
meant to be happen like that so yeah i openly accept and yeah uh if if someone can someone can get the
motivation out of that i'm more than happy to share my my entire journey but yeah that was just that was
the that was the that was the uh u-turn in my life that basically uh brought me to where i am currently
today so tell me more about the u-turn i'm curious what that looked like for you yeah what was the
adjustment like yeah it was it was right yeah sure uh it was a bit of a depression experience where i where i
had to basically i went into a show uh for for quite a few for a few months i i had a lot of struggle i forgot how to walk
you know all those things but uh uh one thing i learned uh over over the over the time is uh you know uh you know
healing is inside you uh regardless of how where you are you know how you know how you get uh whatever situation in your life
healing is inside you just need to rediscover it so what i did was that basically i was i was completely
uh i would say uh uh hopeless and depressed uh for like six seven months and that was that during that
uh recovery phase i was that even that state uh suddenly i don't know how what i was thinking but
something i i heard something or voice came to come suddenly i i said to my parents you know like
literally i don't know what what it was what was that that was a voice from me that i don't want to
sit like this i need to do something with my life that's that was the only thing and uh before that i
was actually going for a ged program because uh in part from pakistan i uh was uh i did my associate
degree in computer science so it was called ics program that very very first it came in 2000 99 2000
the computer was came just at that time in my school and i decided to go for ics inter of computer
sciences so that was the program that i got in and i did for two years and in 2000 november 2002 we came
to the u.s and then i worked for straight three years about two three years and until i got injured
and i was planning to do ged that time i i had a book sitting there whenever i go to for work or or
whenever i have a free time i used to read the book so that i can get prepared for ged and i can actually
because the problem with my associate degree in pakistan is that they were not accepting it here
in the u.s and i had to get credit transfers and all that stuff so i thought i should do a ged
that is a high school equivalent to high school diploma and then i will take the sat exam and then
i will go into college that was the plan that didn't work out and then i came back it was the life
became more tougher things became more challenging uh uh so i went to i came into the u.s in uh in the
i came from from georgia to uh the new york uh in 2006 that was like july august 2006 and uh i contacted
the state uh agency and uh asked for for the for the help i think i the very first uh the very first
first agency i went to was helen keller uh in brooklyn downtown so helen keller learning center that was
that was the agency i went through and they actually uh they helped me uh uh go through this uh uh vocational
rehabilitation program where i lay where i learned uh grade one grade two grade three braille how to
read write and basically use my uh you know like uh use all the other senses that i have officially uh you
know but after losing that one of the senses so i i learned how to travel independently uh and uh then
in 2009 i uh 2008 i think i went to uh the jewish guild i think it's called guilt hill guild health now
but it was jewish guild in the past and it was on the salas manor 65th street very very very close to the
columbus circle or what you call it the center park yeah it was like lexu center park so i used to go
there for about one and a half two years and i did my uh esl classes i did i took some esl classes there
and they they they used to they used to train for ged programs so they had the curriculum course and
everything and they basically proctored the exam as well so i i at that time i was i took the exam i i asked my
one of my instructor that i'm planning to take the ged exam she said okay let's start uh you know
preparing for it now so she gave me some material to listen and prepare and then after two three
months i think i took the ged exam i passed uh the exam at the first shot and i i was asked to go into
this pre-college program they used to run so i went through this pre-college program and i think november
2009 i took the sat exam at the kingsborough community college in brooklyn uh i i passed the
sat exam didn't have to take any remedial classes the the english reading writing and math and uh yeah
that was the time i started my uh associate program uh in associate degree in computer science uh i went in
2009 completed in 2012 uh my associate degree in computer science and uh yeah that was a quite a
journey because that time you know uh accessibility wasn't openly talked about yeah it was like you know
here and there and the courses that kind of courses i was taking they were quite challenging so you were
you're talking about programming you're talking about math calculus one calculus two linear algebra uh differential
equations statistics uh i think probability and then you have uh logic and computer logic and things of
that sort so i had to uh find yeah i mean i was lucky enough to find good people who basically who knew
the who knew the uh the material and i needed to basically ask them to to you know tailor to my needs
so basically i guided them to help me and uh yeah that was that was the journey i i went to and i was
used i used to go to for help i used to go to math workshops a lot and no one knew how to help a
blind student i was guiding them to uh to teach you to help me so basically i used to carry my book and
they used to uh write all the things in the paper from the book they used to read the problem then write it
down the paper and i used to do everything on my head on the bond by using uh using my finger on the
table and i used to basically write down everything so that like i'm writing on the table but it was
going through my head so i was like uh that i had that ability someone told me that you know it's going
to work really well for you because they started doing it and they said oh wow do you are like this
you're you're like a tactile person so you want to feel it before you where you can process the
information in your head and i was like yeah that that is helping me so i started learning using and
using more and more of that and that basically helped me a lot uh yeah so i actually uh the classes
were quite tough very challenging and uh at the very first day of my intro to inter inter to computer
science programming class my professor told me that this is not the this is not your cup of tea
uh you're gonna be challenged you're gonna be challenged and you know it's not gonna be easy and
i said uh that's okay but uh if you can help me uh if you can provide that information for me for
example if you can modify some things when you're writing on the board can you read it out loud so that
i can capture it on my recorder and things of that sort so i used to advocate for myself i used to call it out
i was very shy at the beginning but i realized that you know because of that shyness i was losing a lot
i was not speaking up and i was i was literally you know you know in a very confused state where
things were there but not there like you know i was missing information in my recording so i decided
to speak up and ask ask questions ask them to make make those adjustments some professor did really well
they they helped me a lot and at the end of the day i think at the end of the program they recommended
me for the mu alpha theta club because you know i was just doing so well on math and computer science so
that was quite a journey i went from there in 2002 after completing my associate degree to brooklyn college
uh in 2012 2012 to 2014 i did my uh uh undergrad degree in computer science and uh in uh that was
the same experience i had to educate all every my all of my professors you know like can you the material
you're providing the handouts you're providing on the day of the class or the day of the lecture can you
make them you know you know provide me the electronic copy uh one day in advance so that i can prepare
otherwise i was losing that time and i had to go back home do the scan and then make the material
accessible so things of that you know those adjustments i needed to make along the way so in 2013
i applied for the internship at american foundation for the blind as an intern web intern and i was hired
i i did the internship for about four or five months and then i was i was asked to come back in 2002 may may
2014 i was asked to come back and they part they offered me a part-time job uh 2016 they created a
uh a very special special position for me or role for me as a tech intern uh and i started a technical
assistant so i started working as a technical assistant and in 2018 after graduation i was
given a software development support engineer i was i they they opening up they opened a job and i applied
and i was accepted as a software developer and a support engineer so i've been working with afb ever since
oh wow yeah and uh that was my whole journey uh yeah i work as a i work as a accessibility engineer
where basically we audit uh and uh you know we audit uh digital assets for big companies and uh we
basically uh give them compliance or basically uh test do the testing and uh give them a certificate of
compliance uh and yeah it's it's it's basically a credible source of uh from afp so yeah things of that
sort and uh yeah uh i think that's that's my entire journey uh learned along the way and i think uh one
of my interns we have a uh a digital internship a digital accessibility internship uh that we all
started offering three years ago last year there was a there was an intern that basically uh put it in
the one of the slack channel that for the for the program that there's a there's this beta program for the be my
eyes opening up if anyone would like to join so i joined through that through her through her reference
yeah yeah that was that was the whole journey of uh knowing be my eyes before that i was using on and
off be my eyes seeing ai i was using i was trying all the other ones that were out there but this this
be my eyes with the glasses that that concept was honestly it was amazing uh when i was doing the beta
version uh the beta testing and all that i knew that it's going to be a it's really great success it's
just that matter it will be a matter of time when people will realize that how powerful this solution
is you know uh you know if you're on the airport and you have a phone on your pocket you can quickly
make a call and basically go through with the uh volunteers guidance you can go through the uh go
through the security check and all that so it was people have used it i was one of my colleagues they
use it for for daily for for daily work so it's it's amazing it's amazing solution so you went through
computer science related degrees in like the way early 2000s kind of deal like late 90s early 2000s mid like
2012 13 14 that time and then again for your master so what in that progression what has been
like what are the big takeaways that you've learned being a blind person in the computer science field
and as things are getting more accessible and that sort of thing like what are the big
if you just look back in a kind of macro way what are the big takeaways that you would have
educating people educating people about accessibility that's it and through my through my personal
experience that's it that was the key that was the key because there was a knowledge gap for sure
people knew how powerful computers are how how how how bigger uh you know i i took ai classes in the in
the past i would say uh 80 years ago 10 years ago but we know ai is gonna uh you know uh basically uh take
over this entire world uh and it will be a new thing it will be a cool thing it will be a very productive
thing but how to use it how to make it efficient how what what are the things that you know uh people
with disabilities are missing out if they if the ai can be used uh efficiently it's still not perfect
today uh that we we just needed to educate and i think this program that afp is running uh we are doing
the same thing we are educating new uh computer science uh students who are developers designers
and uh you know usability experts and they will be that they will have this this knowledge of uh
accessibility when this when the beginning when they do the the initial phases of the program or the
the project that they're working on or the cap app they're working on the website whatever they're
working that all the digital content that they're creating or digital solution that they're creating
they just need to know that what is accessibility how to make things accessible uh what are the what are
the gaps that they can fill in and it's it's a matter of just a matter of knowing it now it doesn't
have a it doesn't have uh what you call it uh expensive uh it's not time expensive or you know like uh in
terms of uh financial things so it's not it's it's not about money it's not about time it's about
knowledge if you have the knowledge time and money will not will not be a problem at all in your project
if you're trying to make things accessible from the fairly early start early stages at the beginning
at the design phase at the thinking phase so if you bring those designs and those ideas at the very
beginning your product will be uh accessible and usable uh most of the time yeah so that's that's the
that's what we are teaching so it's i as i always felt that it was a knowledge gap that i was filling in
where even though my professors were very knowledgeable but they didn't know how to how to how to uh help the
individual who has a you know like a visual disability you know that was that was the thing that i i felt that i
educated them yeah so you educated them you also mentioned that at one point you kind of realized
that you needed to advocate more to get what you needed and the story of blind folks being in college
and not knowing how to do that is very very common i would say right so like what what was the biggest
look what was the most important aspect of learning how to be a good self-advocate for you it was because
you know first of all if you have a disability especially a visual disability you are you can't
you can see the world around you you can see uh individual who are sitting in your classroom you
can't see them right and then you don't you don't have any idea what's going on on the blackboard
you don't know any idea how how the thing is being presented some some professors are very quiet they
quietly write on the blackboard and they expect from sighted people to speak up right uh for me it was a
different thing so i was missing those informations i was missing that that that experience that they
were there that they were that would that they had a luxury for us right they were they were getting that
experience i wasn't missing out so i decided to speak up and i basically asked my professor i just went you
know went to the professor and i said it will be very helpful if you can read what you're writing on the
blackboard and uh what i had to say one two three times and suddenly it became their habit were you
nervous the first time you asked oh yes of course i was i was i was i was quite nervous because i was
going out of my shell i was that was not that was not my type i was not like that i was not uh openly
spoken uh i was not uh i was i was very i would say uh introverted in in that sense that you know i will
always uh stay to myself uh and rather than you know being uh interactive but after that i realized
that you know it is an important thing otherwise i'm going to be solving a lot of puzzles that's that
are not necessary for me to solve because there are things simple things i just need to adjust and
adapt that's what i was trying to do and i learned at the very early stage that i needed to speak to them
i need to go do that basically do that extra mile go extra mile and do that show that intent
that i need i'm i'm a serious student and i'm just like any other student but you know my needs are
a bit different you just need to work with me and you just need to help me uh you know in in this
in this particular style so that i can i can take most event you know like i can i can i can be more
productive and i can i can get benefit out of what what you what you what you're presenting uh so i
used to go to their offices i used to go up to them ask them favors uh for example uh one of my
professors used to give me in the very at the early the intro to algebra class they used to give me uh
like you know 70 50 60 uh problems to solve i it was very difficult for me to type the problem and
then type the solution and it was taking a lot of time i realized that in 2010 i was it i realized
that it was taking a lot of time to type as the solution for the answer first and then type the
solution and i was doing everything on the computer on the laptop uh i asked them to if you can do me a
favor if i can record the the class in the in the cassette that was that time there was a cassette
it's not there anymore it vanished but it was i had a cassette recorder and i asked them to uh to
to give me that uh uh option and they he he agreed upon and he gave me and he you he told me sahib i'm
listening to your uh uh classwork uh while i drive from home to to college or go back to college i
that's how i i listened to your work in in the car it was important it was amazing to to see that i was
showing intent he was also putting an effort to to listen to to to read to my work and providing me
feedback on what or what i have what i have done so yeah fantastic i have two quick questions for you and
then you're off the hot seat i promise my first one is do you think that learning how to be a good
self-advocate has taught you to be a really good prompter for when now the ai is starting to be more
present in coding environments and such and like even just in our accessibility tools and getting visual
information do you find that some of those same self-advocacy skills are coming into play with knowing how to ask
ai for things and what you need to ask oh yes yeah it plays a big part i need to know very clearly what i
need how i need it and what is what's you know very specific things because you know if you if you talk
about ai if you talk about google if you do a quick search for something you have to be very specific
those key terms key things you need to explain to others what you mean by this particular thing so i think
that that that definitely helped me a lot and it's been helping me ever since you know as of today as
well uh you know knowing knowing about or being knowledgeable about things and then asking very
clear specific questions and speaking up is is a key uh because otherwise i have seen a lot of
individuals who are who have disabilities regardless of what type of disability they have you know it's it's
sometimes we we we get you know into ourselves and we we don't we don't we don't we don't we don't we're
not expressive as an individual with disabilities and we basically uh limit to ourself and uh we just you
know we just left out feel i i mean i was that i was like that and uh that doesn't help you that doesn't
help the cause or the purpose that you you if you if you're if you're trying to uh go into uh you know
uh for go for a degree or you you need to you need to be knowledgeable you need to be uh you know we
are knowledgeable we know what what we need it's just that we need to speak up and we just need to make
other people basically uh uh put our point across uh and explain uh how we how they how someone can help us and how what
information we're missing what we information we need that's it yeah uh because there is there's a definitely a big
knowledge gap uh even today like someone to asking me yesterday so uh your computer you have a special computer and i'm like no i don't have a special computer i just have a special
assistive technology software that i use on my on a regular computer to make things accessible so uh it's there's a knowledge gap you know whenever you go out when you speak uh some people judge they uh they ask questions they become curious they they want to know what you do and how you do it and things of that sort you just need to basically tell them you know like uh it's like uh you know life is just like you've been you've been you've been you've been living life it's just that we are just we just make small
certain modifications in our life to to to be more productive that's it uh and those adjustments basically based on what we need and uh yeah becoming becoming uh advocate to ourselves uh for for for those things small small things that we need uh you know it it it it it's it's quite challenging the today's market is quite challenging if you if you're not if you're not that expressive or uh you know if you if you're not that productive you will know what will
you will hire you or no will you know look at you uh so you have to you have to bring that x factor so i think uh it is everyone's everyone's everyone has it it's just that we need to just express more and we just need to work on it and uh yeah we uh you know show it off so that you know let them know that you know we are here we're you know we are we we we mean business we are very serious just like any other any other individual we just need some adjustments and uh we will be as productive
or as close as productive than a sighted person or normal a person who doesn't have a disability and one last question you mentioned i've been dying to ask this since earlier and i waited till the end but you mentioned that there were a lot of things that you discovered in yourself that you haven't seen to yet before you had been injured and gone blind so i'm curious what is this like your one favorite not two not three not tied for one but one favorite thing that you've discovered about yourself
uh memory uh memory uh my memory was so good uh i i still remember the comments from my uh from the math workshop and from my professors that i have a photographic memory that whatever is happening at the moment i capture it in a way so that it is very detailed in the picture and i can always recall from my memory so that those that was that was the that was that was very refreshing to see i mean i knew it i have it it just that i was never using it because i was so much relying on my
and my vision i i was uh yeah it was it was just that discovery of my myself yeah that's really awesome i'm sure there was much more and a lot more healing and that could be a podcast series all by itself but thank you for coming and sharing your story with us um i i love hearing these stories every single one is so unique and i think in blind space sometimes it's really easy for us to go like yeah we're all blind except it's everybody's experience is so different of course we
yeah we are individual all individuals who are who are born they are different they are we can't compare each other with other people we we're not we are unique everyone is unique everyone is unique it's just that we just need to uh know about yourself we are we normally people say we know about we know ourselves they we don't honestly we we rely on so much uh that extra thing we don't talk to ourself we don't we don't we don't everything is in ourselves we are so you know like uh
it's human human is so complicated and amazing at the same time we don't we don't know ourself
we just need to introduce to ourself and love ourself and basically appreciate what we are
given all the opportunities because sometimes we go in that shell where we become depressed
we we we compare to others we we just think we think about the things that we don't have the
other people's have like the disadvantages we because of that uh you know like being less
appreciative we we get into that shell where we block things certain things that you know we can't
process in our mind we can't we don't let them come in and feel uh feel the things that we normally
should we should do it i think what i feel like i mean i have all the all the things uh that everyone
else has it's just that there is one limitation that i have but i need to find the workarounds
and then to uh i need to uh adjust my life accordingly that's a programmer your language is workarounds
that is your job yeah that's it that's it exactly enjoy the life yeah thank you so so much for
sharing your story with us thanks for listening to can you top this from be my eyes be sure to subscribe
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