Friday 5 January 2018

Deaf Girly and the iPhone

I'm pretty happy with how I've hacked my life to make it work for me as a deaf person. In the absence of a hearing dog, I've rigged up an iPad baby alarm for the front door bell. I book meals out over apps on my phone, my GP surgery finally has a non-urgent online appointment system and I can text, FaceTime and picture message just about everyone I know. My life feels accessible.

And then all of a sudden it doesn't.

Storm Eleanor – who rocked up this week – threw me that curve ball. Or rather catapulted it in the form of my beloved iPhone 6 with a tremendously strong gust of wind that blew over the old man walking towards me and also blew off his coat.

Storm Eleanor took out an old man and my iPhone. And while the old man assured me he was OK, my iPhone was not. The screen had shattered. UNDERNEATH the glass screen protector I'd diligently put on it and in spite of the full-coverage silicon case.

It is the first time I've ever broken my iPhone screen, ever and I had one of the first iPhones, ever. So it's not bad going in 10 years of iPhone owning. But it was absolutely gutting nevertheless.

I logged straight into Apple and booked an appointment for my local Apple store for the following day to have the screen replaced. Not just a general appointment. I specifically said that the screen needed replacing.

I arrived at 5.30 and they informed me that I would need to leave the phone with them overnight because I'd booked a later appointment and that it would cost £149... WHAT?!

And as someone who uses their phone for ALL forms of communication, information, diaries etc, leaving my phone overnight was not an option. And how is a new screen worth that much?! *weeps

'You should have been told this when you made the appointment,' the guy behind the Genius Bar told me.

'I booked it online,' I replied.

'Ah, yes, you don't get told that when you book online. Only over the phone,' came his answer.

Boom. Just like that a big slap in the face. A big, change of afternoon/evening plans, walk to the Apple Store, time out from our busy lives for no reason slap in the face. Something that wouldn't have happened if I'd just been able to use the phone.

And so we left, with a broken phone and no option of an appointment for a week...

'It's a a busy time for us.'

Uh-huh well stop giving appointments out for things you cannot solve then.

To be fair, when I first started blogging, this kind of thing happened on a daily basis. It was why I started blogging. It was a way for me to vent my anger, frustration and sadness at the fight I had just to live a normal life.

It is a lot easier now. It's not perfect sure. There are no regular subtitles at the cinema, it would be great if more theatre was captioned, if HMRC was able to get to grips with the NGT Lite app and not hang up whenever I call them through it, I would LOVE to listen to the Archers with a read along script, Podcasts – ah I wish they were accessible – and... well actually the list is still pretty exhaustive.

But it's one hundred times better than it used to be.

Which is why I decided to blog today on this Thankful Friday. I'm thankful that technology is making my life easier, when it's not being blown out of my hand and shattering on the pavement.

I am also thankful for the wonder that is FJM who suggested we use some of our John Lewis vouchers we've been saving, alongside some I'd been saving on my own, and replace my iPhone, seeing as it was on its last 2-hour battery life legs anyway.

I love that boy.

Happy Weekend Peeps. We did the first week of January. And it was OK.

DG
xx




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