[Noisebridge-discuss] Spare Northpaw?; blind navigation workshop

[Sai]

Hi all.

In the years since leaving SF, I've become functionally blind in most
situations. (Cf. <https://s.ai/essays/blindness>) I use a long white
guide cane these days.


1. The cane + echolocation + multiple other cues are pretty good for
giving me info on my surroundings, but they're all relative, and my
sense of direction is still kinda shit.*

I believe that the Northpaw would be very helpful to my navigational
skills, since absolute orientation is a real problem for me day to
day.

Unfortunately, my Northpaw clear acrylic case (1.5) version broke a
while ago, and no longer available to me. Eric said that he ran out of
both kits and preassembled units and isn't making more, and I don't
have the skills or equipment to make one from base components.


If you have one you'd be willing to part with (or know someone who
does), please LMK privately. Email to this address, or use anything at
<https://s.ai/contact>.

I'd prefer the black plastic enclosure (2.0) version if possible. I'd
be wearing this all the time, as an actual high-reliance disability /
navigational device, and I don't want it to break (and cause chafing
from sharp edges) like my last one did.


2. I've started doing workshops on blind navigation for sighted
people, to give a qualitative overview of what it's actually like.
(Not to give enough to actually practically navigate like I do; just
the qualitative parts. It's quite different than most people imagine,
including me before I had to learn the hard way.)

Here're results from EMF Camp 2016:
<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fgW_ydoekv_EuqQk4b-a6mwVoeJBmhgX0JjbHOlqYps/pubhtml>
(click 'qualitative' tab at top).

I'd be interested in doing it other places too. If you know a conf
that would be interested (and could pay my travel from London), please
LMK.

I'd probably be up for doing my usual meditation workshop and a cogsci
or law talk as well. See <https://s.ai/presentations> /
<https://s.ai/work/legal_resume.pdf>.



Thanks in advance for your help.

Sincerely,
Sai