Interview: ENGLISH VERSION

Introduction

1. Are you okay with it being recorded?

This is totally okay. 

2. You also participated in the project last year, did you have any problems you want to avoid this time?

Travel expenses reimbursement last time did not go well, so we have to ask again. He likes doing it but it's still a pretty long trip by traveling back and forth each time.

For the positive experiences for last year he mentioned mostly nice people, mostly business but very nice and was sorry it ended. Received good guidance from the students.

3. What are your expectations? About the project, about your own role and ours?

Mostly asked the question back to us, develop a product that could help him/ improve his life. Whatever we want to design, he finds it all interesting. The goal for now is to design a product that improves the quality of his life. We are going to see together where the possibilities are and what we can make, this interview is also especially to get more insight on this. It remains a very individual product, mainly focused on our participant and he has noticed that from last year. The thing is that other people should also be able to use it. We are not going to market the product, but we are going to make a prototype. This will allow us to properly visualize what the product will look like. Especially learning, doing research and working together. Do make a prototype, like last year, but we will not produce it and bring it to market. 

Background 

4. What is your spectrum of vision? Do you see nothing at all or do you see light and dark?

For the spectrum, he sees light but it is very difficult to define how it is put together. It is not dark and he can see where it is lighter or darker. Does not see shapes or stature. Really only sees that it is light or something, but it really stops there. Light can come from above or below, that he cannot define. 

5. How do you experience the difference in sound between your ears?

One ear is very hard of hearing (left). 

5.1. How does this difference affect you?

He has to deal with it every day so it has a big impact on his daily life. He accepted it, as it is part of his life. In a conversation it is important that the sound comes mainly from the left. Roos was on his right side and to understand her better it was sometimes necessary to bend his head more towards her with his good hearing ear.

6. Do you have certain solutions to improve your sight and hearing?

When we met him at the train station, he was already carrying a walking stick for the blind people. In addition to this, there are several things that help him in his life for being blind. For his hearing impairment, he has no solutions or improvements, such as a hearing aid. 

What he does have is a braille reader, which is a text reader that is fixed in his PC. In addition, he also has his Iphone, on which he has Siri activated to be able to use calling, for example. He demonstrated to us how, by talking aloud, he can give the command to call. 

The braille reader is a long narrow thing attached to his PC. This can convert any text on the screen (mainly for Websites, articles and the mails) into Braille. The braille, can he hear and feel again. It has to be real text for this. Also our mails are read with this. 

Whatsapp he just figured out again. He has had it before but didn't do anything with it. He is still trying to figure out exactly how it works and how he can use it. It works, but not optimally. The text that comes in through whatsapp is read out loud by his Iphone, so he can still 'read' his messages.

6.1. Do you use a stick or a guide dog?

Currently no need for a guide dog If he wanted one, he would want a shepherd. But currently there are too many things involved in having a guide dog. 

Uses many different types of sticks. These are also insured. He can buy a new one every 3 years with his insurance, but since the sticks can also break, he can buy them more frequently than the braille reader, for example.

There are lots of different types of sticks. He now has a retractable one, and also in his coat a small folding one. The stick is actually most for recognition, so that those around him see that he is blind. The feeling himself and "seeing" he actually does mostly by hand. The stick he arrived with is for tapping/touching, though. So the function of the stick can vary from stick to stick.

6.2. How expensive are all these extras?

He is entitled to reimbursement every few years to buy these aids. 

7. What was your childhood like with these barriers?

Impairments in general were difficult to explain in that time, but he especially interacted with people in a different way. This will always be an issue because he cannot make eye contact with people. But if we compare then and now, not much has changed in these manners. It will always be difficult for him to seek contact. Around him, people would often ask him if they can interfere with him or not, meaning that they are often in doubt about what to do. They often have to shift gears especially in these dealings. 

As a child he had a Braille machine, this was a mechanical device that used to help him. Thanks to the PC his quality of life has improved a lot. Because he can read pieces of text and his incoming mail now and not before. Real paper letters he can now also scan in and thereby have them read aloud. These aids did not exist in his youth.

He used to own and read many Braille books. Nowadays that has changed to e-books. In The Hague there are e-books specially for the blind people nowadays. He has an app, which actually has a built-in display, which also allows him to move forward and backwards in the book and has many other settings. If he fell asleep, which happened quite often, he could now easily rewind without losing his place. He has always loved reading, which we can actually call listening to him. 

The Braille books used to be very heavy and took up a lot of space so the boys who delivered them had a lot of work. You also couldn't just put them in your pocket and take them with you. Because braille books are printed on thicker paper so they can apply the dots, which makes them often thick books. Storing them at home was also a task because of this, since these books take up much more space than, say, today's e-books.

Lifestyle

8. What is your life like?

He lives alone, in an apartment 4 high and he goes up and down all the stairs every day. It is a 2 room apartment, in a nice neighborhood in Groningen, where he has lived for almost 25 years now. He is also very active in the neighborhood. He writes the neighborhood newspaper and other activities. He also swims every Monday evening for half an hour and here he trains together with other blind people. He also has two exercise machines at home.

What he especially enjoys doing is cycling with his brother. They use a tandem for this. His brother is now retired, so on a nice day they cycle quite long distances. This is because from Groningen they can quickly and easily go into the woods for their bike rides. 

He is also active in the eye association in Groningen. Here he is chairman and responsible for the agenda. For this, he also attends many meetings concerning people who travel by public transport. Here he gives advice and helps to improve it. 

Later in the interview it also came out that in the neighborhood where he now lives he is very well included. Many neighbors and friends brought flowers when he was temporarily completely deaf in one ear. He is very happy that his work eventually brought him to this home. This neighborhood is also safe and the people make it very nice.

9. Do your family members also have vision or hearing impairment?

No, none of his conditions run in his family. His mother had rubella when she was pregnant with him, which is why he was born blind. Early adaptations were made to his living environment and his childhood home. He just went to elementary school in his hometown and played with other children there as well. He finds it very good that it used to be that way.

For high school he went to Zeist. He has several HBO level diplomas including telephony, machine writing and dutch. During his time in Zeist there was also a swimming pool where he went every Wednesday evening. 

10. How do you do your grocery shopping?

He always goes to Albert Heijn because he is always helped here. When he goes grocery shopping there is an employee who is there to help him. He only has to report to the counter for the help, but they know him there now so there is always someone ready. At other stores he also often asks to be helped.

11.  How do you cook?

In Zeist he also learned to cook, but now he doesn't cook anymore. Now he gets a hot meal twice a week at the daycare (multifunctional center). For the rest of the days he goes to a little restaurant in Groningen where he can eat a hot meal for 10 euros. There is also an old hospital that became an eating house, where you can also eat a cheap meal.

He used to cook by feeling, smelling and listening very well. The smelling part is especially important in this. He didn't actually like the cooking itself. Cooking involves a lot of organizing and he often wasn’t looking forward to that. He also didn't like doing the dishes afterwards. 

Now at the day care center he does enjoy helping. He often helps peel potatoes, for example, and he actually enjoys this work. 

12. Can you do everything yourself or are there things where you need help?

Quite a lot with guidance. So does cooking too. Gardening, for example, is more difficult. Here it often comes down to where is something? Where can I do something? This makes it difficult for him to do this. 

At home everything is in fixed places, which he has all memorized. In this way he can remember where everything is and doesn't need further help for this. He also definitely recommends it to others because this way you don't lose things.

13. How do you keep in touch with people and how do you use your laptop, phone and internet?

He uses the landline and his Iphone a lot to call. Here he can just call anyone and makes it possible for him to keep in touch with people. Often he also does emailing and then along with his Braille device. This one is essential. He does not take this one with him, as it is a pretty expensive thing and too big to take with him. 

He gets reimbursed for these devices and is allowed to buy a new one every few years. 

14.  You said you enjoy traveling by train, why is that?

He likes traveling mainly because of the feeling of the train, i.e. the movements/vibrations. When the speed train passes by he also likes it a lot, but still a little scary. In addition, he likes all transportation vehicles. For example trucks.

He has a pretty good sense of orientation and often asked his father which way the road went or where and by remembering this well, he almost always knew where he was. So around Groningen he knows the map quite well. In his own environment he can therefore pretty well tell where he is. He likes traveling specifically because of the experience, the sounds and feeling the vibrations. If he gets the chance to get away/travel then he does it.

Hobbies and work

15.  How do you work?

He has worked as a telephone operator at a health insurance company. He had to leave there unfortunately because there was a lot of change in the company and he would no longer fit in. Fortunately, he still does quite a lot in his daily life. But he would like a day job again. He is still looking for it and once wrote a motivation letter himself. But he has been away too long to go back to work. 

What he also did were evaluations, for example for the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, about the station for example. This can also be seen as a side job. Because after all, he received a small compensation for this. 

16.  What are your hobbies?

Books, reading, writing and the radio. From childhood he has always been a radio freak. He has been on City Channels on radio and other broadcasters, for example. At these broadcasters he has done several interviews with people. Here he interviewed people about their work or hobby. During these interviews he took notes in Braille. These interviews were live so he never knew what would come out. 'Live radio is good radio' he said. Swimming and cycling he does mostly now. Running on the treadmill and on the rowing machine. As also mentioned earlier in the interview. 

16.1. Are there any sports you would like to try that you cannot currently do?

Ball sports can be difficult, but there are ball ringers for them now to make this possible anyway. So he doesn't have any sports he would like to try at the moment.

Accessibility and interaction

17.  Are there places where it is difficult for you to be at?

Public buildings. People do work on building walkways or different sound landmarks that then tell you exactly where you are, but this always remains difficult. Also the hospital for example, here he would not be able to go independently. He would like to walk himself to different places but unfortunately this is not possible in new places. He would like to know where everything is in order to be able to do everything as independently as possible. Hospitality and hotels, for example, are also still difficult because it is just not familiar territory. 

A good example situation, he cannot actually come up with. But there is still a lot of room for improvement on this. There is progression, though. He is actually now mostly using the people in the situation who can help. 

18.  What are the facilities offered to blind or hard of hearing people?

The Bartimeus association, and the eye association. The Ooglijn, this is in Utrecht and you can always call them to find out things for you. He also used this once. To help with new updates for the phone.

19.  Do you have a lot of contact with people who are also blind or deaf?

Two days a week he goes to Ommen. Here he is together with other people who are blind or deaf. Here he does different talks, woodworking and tasks. They also go into the garden and go on different trips. For example, they went to the fire department to hear things about fire safety. So he does a lot of fun things with this.

Safety

20.  Do you sometimes feel unsafe in some situations?

Sometimes, it could have to do with several things. Traffic safety or social safety for example. Once he was helped by a junk with the road, but this time he did feel a hand in his pocket. At such a time he did feel a little unsafe, in the end nothing was done but he did feel a hand really check his pocket. But actually he had never experienced such a situation before. In his daily life he also does not go to places where there is a lot of violence or something like that. 

21. Do you use objects for your safety on the street?

His stick is mainly for this purpose. Mainly so that his surroundings know that he is blind and then they can pay better attention. 

22. Do you think you have a higher chance of getting injured?

He doesn't necessarily think he has a higher chance of getting injured.

23. Do you sometimes find it annoying when people (try to) help you?

No, it is not annoying. It is also a bit about the way things are asked. People often offer in public if they can accompany him or take him somewhere. Especially when crossing the street, he always likes getting helped and would also advise always saying yes there. Having an extra pair of eyes is always nice in this situation.

Design

24.  Are there any products you use that you enjoy using?

He was kind of expecting this question, so thought about it a bit. Glasses that would allow him to feel at height. (we think this was designed by the previous group so this unfortunately falls out). Not sure what he would need right now. Graphic things he gets less of now, so maybe online we can do something with that. Or maybe more on being converted to text. 

25.  Are there any products that don't work so well yet?

Brands of clothing, e.g. a new blouse, he can't "see" well now. Something with feeling here could be nice. That he can recognize that this is his newest blouse or that certain things match. In that area something of recognition comes in handy, because now there is really nothing for this. Although, there are already options/applications that can now read colors from a computer, so this is not completely new. 

26.  How do you buy clothes?  

He does it now mainly with his social contacts (family), so mainly with others who can give him advice. He also did it with a color card once. He still has this range of colors at home, but he has never actually used it. 

He now has everything that matches in his closet, also hangs together. In this way he can recognize his sets. 

Also features help, for example a blouse that has no pockets, then he will know exactly which blouse he is wearing. 

So more recognition for the appearance of clothes is something he is still missing in his life.

27.  Do you find yourself missing something?

He doesn't actually find that he is really missing anything.

Extra question after the interview

28.  How do you actually go on vacation?

To go on vacation, he always needs counseling. This is available through different organizations, though. The disadvantage of this is that it is expensive for him, because he only gets reimbursed up to 300 euros from the insurance for this accompaniment. Nevertheless, he has done it several times. He has been to New York, China and Berlin. Here companions go along on the trip and they vary each day with whom they then go out. These guides are people, volunteers, who like to go along, often these are people from an organization in Emmen (Twin Travel). Twin Travel is a special travel organization that organizes trips for people with disabilities. 

He experiences these vacations by feeling things and a lot of history to be explained in places like this. Berlin is also a good example of this because this city contains a lot of history. When he was there, he also heard a lot about the Wall and also saw, among other things, the bunker where Hitler sat. He therefore finds these things very interesting and fun to do. During these trips he cannot choose who goes with him, but he is assigned someone. He also went to China and even walked on the Great Wall of China.

With foreign food, he is fortunately easy going. He does not see what he is eating and therefore, like others do, can get sick from the food. This did happen once in Indonesia. But unfortunately you can't fix that. But all the different cultures remain very interesting for him.