Hello World! For 35 wonderful years, I was a successful independent developer in the industries of computing technology & electronics, specializing in next-generation development in GNU/Linux & Microsoft Windows... And then...
I became totally BLIND in both of my eyes!
For a scientific explanation, check out my podcast, The BLIND Scientist.
For those that believe in Christianity, check out my other podcast, The BLIND Biblical Researcher.
Welcome to my Daily BLIND Living podcast! My name is Marcos Miranda, a US citizen that was born & raised in the USA and now living in The Philippines as a married man.
In this podcast, I intend to keep only a few episodes, with plans on creating new episodes once or twice daily. I got my idea from Facebook Stories, in which posted stories are automatically deleted in 24 hours. I intend on talking up to 15 minutes per episode, about my thoughts & experiences, living life as a blind American citizen in the Philippines.
Everyday, I'm always drinking my favorite beverage: Freshly-brewed, unsweetened, cold Ginger Green Tea (Green Tea with Ginger root). I drink 3l to 8l daily.
Prior to my vision-loss, my name meant something in many fields of computing technology & electronics engineering, as I have accumulated many masteries, all of which went into the garbage can when I lost my vision. I am now 50 years old and have self-adapted to the technologies I once HELPED invent.
When I lost my vision, I was too skeptical of becoming an "end user" of the technologies I HELPED invent, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning & speech synthesis! When my local blind organization offered to teach me how to use the computer, I immediately became humiliated at myself because my superb vision is now gone! The reason was, I was addicted to independent, next-generation development of computers & electronics; in other words, I was developing technology that did not yet exist! That became the beginning of my struggles with blindness.
Nowadays, now that I have successfully adapted to my blindness as a third disability, I often promote the tasks I do, to prevent people from labeling me as "lazy".
Unlike most other blind persons, my blindness is NOT my first disability! Blindness is my third disability! My first disability is hypotension, or extremely low blood pressure, a childhood illness that prevents my brain from safely-treating stress within my body. My second disability is a hygienic disorder, also a childhood illness, but this one prevents me from gaining employment. For the past decade, arthritis has entered my body, and is not reversible, therefore, I have my own manual wheelchair. Due to arthritis & blindness, independent navigation with my white cane is NOT easily achievable!
Daily, I use the following mobile computing hardware to facilitate my vision-loss:
Apple iPhone 6S Plus with VoiceOver screen reader.
Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet with VoiceView screen reader.
Cherry Mobile Flare S8 Android smartphone with Google Talkback + Brailleback.
Since I became blind, I do not type on my touchscreens nor use dictation. Instead, I use the following hardware input devices (HIDs):
Logitech K480 Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard. I learned to type on a manual QWERTY typewriter in 1980 and became touch-typist on electric typewriter in 1986.
Orbit Research Orbit Writer Braille keyboard. I self-learned to type in Braille in September 2020.
On my iPhone, to facilitate my vision-loss, only on an as-needed basis, I use EnvisionAI (also on my Android), SeeingAI, Be My Eyes, Voice Dream Suite (Reader, Writer, Scanner & Voice Pack) and MBraille (third-party touchscreen-based Braille keyboard).
Unlike many or most other blind persons, I make the most out of older, cheaper mobile computing devices, unless there is a flaw with the firmware or operating system that hinders my use of it's accessibility tools. -- I'm happily using Apple iOS, Amazon FireOS & Google Android on a daily basis!
The voice assistants I...
