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People say that our technology and training have changed their lives:

Simmie is enjoying the easy accessibility of the In Your pocket phone.

I like the In Your Pocket for it’s clear, reassuring voice and the fact that you have to press the button to do anything so there is less chance of issuing the wrong command by mistake. Also, I like the fact that you can download pretty much any book you want or browse for new ones.

Simmie

Stephanie provided training for the grand daughter, and this is the result: 

Granddad wept tears of joy when I showed him how to scan documents into Georgie Phone, he can now privately re-read Grandmas letters to him, by listening to them in synthetic speech. He wanted to buy something expensive and snazzy, and an Android phone did the trick. He did not want something that looked old fashioned.” He is 91 and feared he might have to go into a care home, he felt he was back in control and more independent after having learned to make and receive phone calls.


J. Received training by phone on several of the Georgie apps
she is a guide dog owner, was thrilled to find the talking navigation app,

This means that I will be able to safely take my guide dog running free over the fields behind our house. I can create landmarks at the field gates, and my In Your Pocket will speak them to me as I pass! This is great.

J

Robert was delighted to hear his phone reading out the medicine packets that he scanned. Mrs J.G. emailed to say,

Just to say how very good Stephanie was during Robert’s cry for help, Stephanie could not have been any more help than she was, she has the patience of a saint, Robert has trouble speaking to people over the phone but she put him at ease right away, we would like to thank her for all her help, THANK YOU.’  

Mrs J.G.

Visiting FH in his home. Stephanie was his first visitor who could offer help and advice, he was incredibly grateful, as he had been isolated and depressed.
FH, whose sight was getting worse, said,

Let’s try the camera, with the guided speech; I can take a photo of my wife. With the magnification on the phone and different colours I do not need to use my magnifying glass.

FH

GS, who is completely blind and quite mobile told me:

I looked up my vets on the ‘Near Me’ app. and found it. I then asked Georgie for directions, and having led me across town, Georgie took me by a different route. I found that this route was half a mile shorter than my previous route. I am very pleased.

GS

Roger and Stephanie ran 6 weeks of computer training sessions in Lambeth library: 

We are seriously impressed with what you are doing here and the positive impact it has had on our learners.
One of the trainee’s is barely recognisable now as she looked so well and confident.
Struggling with time and resources, we can only offer basic mobility training and a short intro to independent living skills. It is professionally demoralising for us knowing people need so much more intensive input especially in the early stages of sight loss and the long waiting time for even an initial visit means many people have become depressed and isolated by the time we get to see them.
This is one reason the work you are both doing is so fantastically important for us.
These four students are superb examples of the difference that we can achieve. They are now at a different level in terms of confidence and personal aspirations. That is priceless!

RL, Development Worker, London

EB who is blind opened her home to 3 other blind students:

Thank you very much for today’s session. It was so exciting to know that I have the ability to navigate around my computer without having to shout for help. The whole internet possibility is tantalising and encourages me to be daring in my exploration.
I’ve learned so many tips and shortcuts which I’ll continue to revise and enjoy.

EB, Trainee

Bob went on to design and manufacture his own guitar, despite being very disabled through diabetes, and totally blind.

It’s an absolute delight to listen to you Stephanie. Sounds like freedom with the computer maybe coming my way.

Bob

From A, trainee:

You are blind as well, so you know what it feels like, and where we are coming from. When my husband shows me, he just wants to turn the speech output off, and do it with the mouse, which I can’t.

A, Trainee

From Ronald:

I’ve found you brilliant Stephanie; It’s good to talk to someone who understands your problems. I have talked to my friends, my tutor and my wife about you.

Ronald

From Mc, Trainee:

I am writing to thank you for the excellent support that you gave me this afternoon in my attempt to update the Thunder and Webbie programmes used by my friend Alison.
You were very knowledgeable, your instructions were clear, spoken very clearly and you took the trouble to fit me in with other things that were going on at your end. You clearly cared that my friend should not be left without a working screen-reader and phoned back on your way home to make sure that all was now well.
Thanks to your help, I was able to climb back out of the deep hole that Vista had dug for me and leave Alison with a working system.
I really can’t think of any way in which the support that you gave could be bettered. If only all technical support was as good as yours!

MC, Trainee

From Auriol Britton Singer, Poetry writer and author:

A big thank you to Stephanie Sergeant. Stephanie Sergeant is brilliant! She is involved in braille innovation and development with Bristol Braille, spreading the use of braille in economical, practical ways, and she supplies In Your Pocket, a media player – (a ‘phone, basically), full of podcasts, radio stations, books and newspapers and magazines, all accessible to blind people. All the profits from her enterprise go to support projects in Africa, including accessible IT. She seems to achieve so much with hardly anything at all: with about one extra fiver, she is able to provide food, fuel, fix equipment and, with a bit extra, over a little while, send smart braillers. Stephanie uses every penny so efficiently, and doesn’t have expensive running costs such as over-paid chief exec’s, lots of logos and advertising ETC’ stephanie is living proof that you can get stuff done without needing millions. One’s hat is duly removed!

Auriol Britton

From Anne:

Thank you for attending the surgery today and providing blind awareness training for the staff here. The training was extremely useful. All the staff who attended found the session very interesting and agreed that it will influence their contact with patients in the future. It was a pleasure to meet you and Megan (who was clearly a great hit with everyone). I would happily recommend the training that you provided.

Anne

From Tiffany

One of the things I gained from talking to you that a future with sight loss could be worthwhile and not pointless. After talking to you I feel more hopeful about this. Look forward to talking to you on Monday.

Tiffany

This is from my customers when I worked as an analyst programmer.

As discussed over the phone I would like to put in writing my appreciation of the work that Stephanie Sergeant has done for me on the Cadbury Y2K project. Despite late notice and an attitude of ‘no – we cant do it’ from her previous manager she has pro-actively managed a solution to the problem. The preferred solution selected from 2 options that Stephanie put in front of me was along ITNET strategic lines and included the setting up and management of a contract solution. Her communication with me and other involved parties within ITNET was first class and delivery was as promised (in some respects better than promised!!).
I include below a memo from the major user of the end product Les Ashton telling me that he has got what he expected and all is as expected.

Cheers.

Les

I have evaluated the output from the MXG version of the report pack and can confirm that all is now OK. I have matches in all respects other than a few w/e missing. Stephanie knows what is causing this and is implementing a solution. I have printed MICS and MXG versions for you to see the comparisons if required.

Memo from main user