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Byte size interview No 9: Mandy de la Mare
- 13 Sep 07, 04:27 PM
Mandy de la Mare is one of the UK's 450 + 'Thalidomide Babies'. She was born without arms and is also visually impaired. As she can't see or type conventionally, she can't use a monitor or a keyboard as boring old standard computer users would do. Put basically, she speaks to her computer... and her computer speaks back to her. That's speech input and output instead of typing and looking at her monitor. Keep up.
For the speech input, Mandy uses voice recognition software with a microphone to talk to the computer so she can dictate and navigate with her jaws cursor. For output, she has the famous JAWS screenreader. is a piece of software she uses to marry Naturally Speaking and JAWS together to make JAWS work well when she speaks to it, giving her top notch accessible navigation ability.
Mandy works for the , helping people to find the right assistive technology, and to train them in their use. In her spare time, she is an avid reader.
Q: What are your favourite websites?
I like websites that are quick and easy to use. I like to buy books from and get my shopping from . I also like the , and read the newspapers online.
Q: What are some of your least favourite websites?
I’m not a fan of Woolworths. I tried to buy something from there recently, and wasn’t able to add it to my basket. I find websites frustrating when I have to scroll through the navigation, and can’t skip all the links. I was also annoyed recently when I tried to use the ticketmaster website. I got all the way to the end of the buying process when they asked me to type in a verification code that I couldn’t see. It was so frustrating.
Q: What was the last thing you bought online?
My shopping from Tescos.
Q: If the web were taken away from me today I would…
I’d be lost. It would take my independence away with it.
Q: What's the most adventurous thing you've done on the web recently?
I booked my holiday online for the first time. That was pretty adventurous for me. I was a bit nervous about it, but it all turned out fine.
Q: What are your favourite blogs?
I don’t read blogs, I’m afraid.
Q: Have you ever heard of Facebook?
Yes, but I don’t use those kinds of websites because I assume I can’t. I prefer to use MS Messenger because that works fine for me. I’ve thought about trying Skype, but I’m a bit worried that it might change the settings on my microphone.
Q: Do you have a favourite gadget?
That’s definitely my Dictaphone. If I’ve been in a meeting or something, I can quickly make notes on it so that I don’t forget anything. Because my software is trained to my voice, I can just plug it into the computer, and it will type up my notes for me.
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Mandy
You rock! When I was 12, I was on the ski team at school in Montreal. My best ski pal was also a thalidamide baby. We used to ski together every weekend in the Laurentian Mountains and let me tell you, she worked me hard - She kicked my butt!
One day when we were skiing out of bounds (as we did) I wiped out and got stuck in a bank of powder. She pulled me out with her ski until I eventually I got free. We laughed ourselves silly at how absurd we must have looked.
Your great sense of humour is like hers. She taught me so much about perception and ability.
Thanks for the great interview. (I think your microwave is safe, but I can't be sure)
xx
pinks
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