I’m sorry if this comes out a mess—I’ve switched to voice typing on my mobile so I can lie down. Sitting up right now is too painful. I’m due for my evening meds soon, but until they kick in, I’m stuck dealing with this. Normally, I’d be typing on my big display—80cm is like a whole-ass metric yard diagonally, that’s how big it needs to be for my vision to stand a chance at proofreading. I use magnification too, but with the pain from my spinal injury wrecking my motor control and my vision acting up, that setup’s off the table tonight.
The pain is bad enough that I can’t even attempt to type the usual way—my hands, wrists, and back just won’t cooperate. I’m waiting on my evening meds to give me some relief. These meds help, but they come with a catch: they cause double vision and blurriness. That’s rough when your vision’s already been busted since the 80s and has only gotten worse over time. In a couple of hours, I’ll get a brief break from the blurry, doubled-up world, but for now, I’m managing as best I can.
These days, I’m basically blind. I hit that threshold last year, in 2024, and finally admitted it to myself. I stopped driving and quit saying “hell no” to certain meds I used to refuse. My visual acuity’s so shot that even with a screen where 80cm is like a whole-ass metric yard, plus magnification, it’s a battle. Typing’s been a skill since I was young, but now? Voice typing’s the only way to go when I’m like this—it saves me the physical strain, even if it butchers the formatting.
Speaking of voice typing, it’s a mixed bag. It doesn’t handle line breaks unless I try to guess where they should go, which feels ridiculous. Like, what is this—an accessibility feature or a trap? It doesn’t seem designed for people with limited vision, let alone someone blind like me. There are folks worse off vision-wise, sure, and I can still kinda see, but this setup doesn’t feel helpful. It’s more like it’s for people who don’t type at all, not for those of us fumbling through disabilities.
- Pain Relief: Typing hurts my hands, wrists, and back—voice lets me skip that.
- No Pretending: I’m not too proud to admit I need this—I’ve got no internalized ableism about my vision.
- Social Connection: It’s my way into online spaces when I can’t move much.
I was in an online space earlier, partly because I couldn’t type or see well enough to keep up otherwise. I just wanted some social interaction that didn’t make my pain worse. Raising my hand there lets me chime in without overdoing it. I can’t drive, there’s no bus running this late, and I’m not going anywhere physically—so this is what I’ve got. It’s not much, but it helps, and I appreciate you being here for this ramble. Thank you!