A thread about some of the challenges faced when people need access to accessible vehicles

A black van sits in a grey industrial compound. Its side door is open and a beige chair has swivelled out

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The below is a thread I posted to Bluesky and Mastodon off the back of a discussion I had with a mother at my local doctors surgery. I want to expand on some of this in future posts, but I'm just sticking this here for the moment.<blockquote>Just had an interesting discussion with a woman who's son has Muscular Distrophy.He's using a power assist chair at the moment but is going to be needing a full power chair sooner rather than later.This means they're going to need a vehicle that can converted.Now the NDIS will only pay for a conversion if the vehicle is three years old or younger, which means that if you're not in the position to buy a new or near new car then you're having to shop around the second hand market. Hoping something comes up."That's alright there are wheelchair taxis aren't there?"Well no. Wheelchair taxis are an increasingly rare breed, which means that what you have is an increasingly isolated group of people who cannot function as part of society.So what if the NDIS didn't just cover the conversion but offered a path to vehicle ownership?This is just spitballing but you increase the pool of vehicles that can be onsold into the second hand market.I have no details worked out but it's worth a thoughtSo what if the NDIS didn't just cover the conversion but offered a path to vehicle ownership?This is just spitballing but you increase the pool of vehicles that can be onsold into the second hand market.I have no details worked out but it's worth a thought .</blockquote>

Wheelchairs, vans and things - a thread

Where I examine the intersection between technology and disability. The good, the bad and some of the very bad.

Tech and Disability

Long time no blog. Here's what I've been up to since August.

A rusted steel stylised bird with its wings swept back as if coming into land. It is done in an origami style

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Okay so it's been almost two months since my last post, I figured I should post SOMETHING at least.So here's a brief update.<h2>ProminART</h2>Went down to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://shellharbourmarina.com.au/">Shellharbour Marina</a> and took some photos of the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.visitshellharbour.com.au/whats-on/promenart-sculpture-walk/">ProminART</a> display that is running until the 31st October.I've created a gallery of some of the photos I took, which you can find here:<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://angrybeanie.com/gallery/shellharbour-promin-art"><img class="image_resized" style="width:52.24%;" src="/uploads/IMG_9677_dd638ee846.jpg" alt="Two rust red kangaroo sculptures stand on grass. The one closest to the viewer is standing facing right but looking over its shoulder to the left. In the backgroun we can see the other sculpture laying on the ground, as if at rest" srcset="/uploads/thumbnail_IMG_9677_dd638ee846.jpg 234w,/uploads/small_IMG_9677_dd638ee846.jpg 500w,/uploads/medium_IMG_9677_dd638ee846.jpg 750w,/uploads/large_IMG_9677_dd638ee846.jpg 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="1000px"></a><h2>&nbsp;Selfhosting</h2>Finally got Nextcloud and forgejo working behind an nginx proxy.&nbsp;I've got Jellyfin setup to replace Plex, and my next step is replace Google Photos with Immich.Oh and I'm looking for a decent Self Hosted Accounting system. I'm looking to better organise my personal finances as well as move my NDIS foo away from "Put all invoices and receipts into a folder in your email" and to something a bit more not dodgy.<h2>Photogrammetry</h2>I've been playing around with my drone and building a 3d model of my house. It's still very much a work in progress, it's not as accurate as LIDAR, and shadows can cause problems, but the fact that I can get a workable model from my mini 4 pro is pretty damn cool.&nbsp;Speaking of drone things, I'm actively pondering going for the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.casa.gov.au/drones/remote-pilot-licence/get-your-remote-pilot-licence">REmote Pilots License</a>. That's the license that lets you do much cooler things with your drone. I might need to get a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.casa.gov.au/drones/operator-accreditation-certificate/get-your-operator-accreditation">ReOC</a> as well but I'm not sure.<h2>Creative</h2>So here I'm blocked.I've got plans, I've been using Nextclouds Decks facility to break down complex looking tasks and try to work though them but the good old mental block is still there, preventing me from moving on to do what I want to.Here's a sample of some of what I want to do:<ul><li>Complete Women In STEMM: When I started the Women In STEMM podcast I didn't have an end goal but by about episode four I'd decided that the series would have 20 episodes. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://angrybeanie.com/podcasts/shows/wistemm/episodes/dr-alice-gorman">Dr Alice Gorman</a> was number 11, and I've started to build a list of potential interviewees. I've got the whole setup ready to go, so much better than the $50 USB microphone and Skype that I used for the earlier episodes.</li><li>Dapto Solar Observatory Doco: I've been talking about this for literal years. I've gathered most of the materials I need to make the thing, I just need to get my act into gear. I mean all I need to do is write a script, get permission for shooting, record all the things and then put it together and throw it into the void (youtube)</li><li>Tech and Disability: Ye gods this one hurts. Let's see, what could I be doing about this area?<ul><li>AI And Disability, where does it help, where does it hurt</li><li>Who's making the decisions about the tech available to people with disabilities</li><li>The rise of 3d printing in the accessible tech space</li><li>When we automate all the things, how does that affect people with disabilities</li><li>How can tech in general be used to hurt or help people with disabilities</li><li>Explainer videos about things like "Why my shoulders are cactus because of footpaths"</li></ul></li></ul>And more and more and more.So this has been a bit of a brain dump, if nothing else so that I can say that I ACTUALLY POSTED SOMETHING and scratch that itch in my brain. I'll try and do more but there's not guarantee.

What I've been doing

In which I talk about the production that is Going Out

The image showcases a close-up view of a sandy ground covered in fallen gold and brown leaves. The shallow depth of field focuses on the foreground, creating a warm and textured scene. The lighting is soft, highlighting the leaves' natural hues.

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Wasn’t sure whether to put this in the Tech and Disability feed or just the general feed, eh I'll put it in both (footpaths count as technology don't they?).I was reading this blog post by the inestimable El Gibbs about the Cost of Exclusion [<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.bluntshovels.au/the-cost-of-exclusion/">https://www.bluntshovels.au/the-cost-of-exclusion/</a>] and it helped to concentrate a cloud of thoughts I’ve had circling in my head for a while now.I rarely blog about what it’s like to be an incomplete paraplegic for a couple of reasons, it’s still pretty raw, even six years afterwards. Secondly I’ve still got a lot of “don’t complain, other people have it worse than you” going around my head.Anyway.It’s true what they say you know, you never really miss something until it’s gone. Things like the ability to just stand up and walk to the fridge, being able to kneel down to get a great photo, that sort thing. Lately however, for me, it’s the ability to just nip down the street to do something spontaneous just because.Now don’t get me wrong, I am extraordinarily lucky. I have access to the NDIS for support services, I have a power chair* (I’ll be blogging about this later) that allows me to tootle around the neighbourhood on my own and get out of my own head a bit. I’m also lucky in that my neighbourhood is a recently built estate with decent curb cuts and footpaths.The problems start when I need to travel further a field. Which I have to do if I want to do anything more interesting than taking photos of the same places I’ve taken photos hundreds of times before.Look I’m just speaking for me, but part of why I don’t go out more and have become something of a hermit is because it’s a whole Production. You need to plan things, what equipment you’re bringing, how long you’re going to be out, whether you think you’re going to need a toilet while you’re out, all that sort of thing.<ul><li>A simple trip to the doctors (ten minutes down the road by car) means doing the following:</li><li>My wife takes my wheelchair to the van to hoick it into the back after disassembling it</li><li>I use my walker to shuffle down the ramp in the garage out to the van (I’m trying to do as much walking as possible)</li><li>Sit in the van while my wife has to return the walker to the garage</li><li>My wife drives me to the doctors surgery. Thankfully they have a disabled spot open so we park</li><li>Wife gets the wheelchair out of the back of the van and re-assembles it</li><li>She brings it to my door, I transfer from the van to the chair</li><li>I wheel up ramp to the doctors surgery</li><li>I wheel into the doctors surgery, wait, see the doctor and then leave</li><li>I wheel down the ramp to the van</li><li>I transfer into the van and my wife takes the wheelchair apart and puts it into the back of the van</li><li>We drive home, I use the walker to walk up the ramp into the house and into my lifter chair</li><li>My wife re-assembles the wheelchair and brings it into the house</li></ul>And that’s just a trip ten minutes down the road to a single relatively accessible location.It gets even better* if you’re trying to pedestrian it about town. Then you’ve got to deal with footpaths.Footpaths done right are amazing things, flat and wide is good, shallow curb cuts allow for smooth transitioning from the footpath to the road and back.Footpaths done wrong are a nightmare than can injure you or break your chair if you’re not careful.Here’s an example.Every footpath has a camber, that is a slope to allow for water drainage. When you’re walking along, there’s a fair chance that you won’t really notice anything unless the camber becomes quite severe. However when you’re in a wheelchair, it’s a whole different ball game. Physics doesn’t like you. Because physics says that the wheelchair, without intervention by you, the person IN the chair (or the person pushing you), is going to want follow that slope (thanks gravity). So now you, (or the person pushing you) have to constantly correct and fight your chair to make sure that you’re going forward and not getting pitched onto the road.Oh and when you’re doing that fighting and adjusting, you’re most likely doing it with ONLY one arm/shoulder because you are having to apply the force on one side of the chair or you spin and go into a heap.Hello bursitis, torn shoulder muscles and having reduced capacity to do the things you CAN do by yourself until you heal up. And that’s if you DON’T end up on the road playing Australias Next Top Speed Bump.That’s not even talking about broken footpaths, people parking on footpaths, curb cuts that tip your chair or in the event that you try and take public transport, a bus that deposits you into grass because someone “forgot” that bus stops need to be accessible (read concrete AND connected to the footpath).I’ve experienced all of the above and more.When you’re faced with all that, then it honestly becomes easier to stay at home because the world outside seems to be designed to make it as hard as possible for you to participate. I have to push myself to get out of the house at all sometimes, and a large part of that is the mental weight of knowing that any trip is going to be a Production, one thats part scripted and part improv.

On Exclusion and Going Out

ollama Icon  The image shows a bright green seed floating against a dark background. It appears to be suspended in mid-air, creating a sense of movement. The contrast between the seed and the dark background adds to the image’s visual impact.

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I was struggling for something to blog about when I went onto LinkedIn (I know, I really shouldn't) and I saw another post about how the age of the API has passed, and we're all going to be using AI Agents to talk to each other instead.Ha ha, it is to guffaw.I know it's probably someone's AI generated "LOOK AT MOI" post but something about it just irked me.The more I think about it, the dumber the argument gets.An API is literally the bit that allows your software to talk to other bits of software. Whether it's an app on your phone talking to the system or a web service with a client, everything talks via APIs. Including all of the current AI Chatbot systems. Without API's nothing would work, INCLUDING AI Chatbots and so called Agentic Systems.&nbsp;In the words of the great old one "Get your hand off it, it's got bells on"

The Death of the API

Some more experimenting with photography and such

A man sits in front of an octagonal light source. He is facing to the right of the photo.

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*So for todays entertainment I decided to test out a couple of things.Firstly, would my el cheapo light stand carry the weight of my flash, a bowens mount AND the giant softbox that I got off facebook marketplace about four years ago.Secondly I would have a crack and see if I could use the softbox and try and get a rim lit portrait.On the first it succeeded admirably. The stand &nbsp;(which I got as part of one of those "photography kit in a box" things eight years ago) was able to carry the weight of all the gear and proved stable.<img class="image_resized" style="width:45%;" src="/uploads/PXL_20250608_035252824_9ef863ce76.jpg" alt="PXL_20250608_035252824.jpg" srcset="/uploads/thumbnail_PXL_20250608_035252824_9ef863ce76.jpg 208w, /uploads/small_PXL_20250608_035252824_9ef863ce76.jpg 500w, /uploads/medium_PXL_20250608_035252824_9ef863ce76.jpg 750w, /uploads/large_PXL_20250608_035252824_9ef863ce76.jpg 1000w" sizes="100vw" width="1000"> <img class="image_resized" style="width:44.13%;" src="/uploads/PXL_20250608_035929100_3f2686d808.jpg" alt="PXL_20250608_035929100.jpg" srcset="/uploads/thumbnail_PXL_20250608_035929100_3f2686d808.jpg 208w, /uploads/small_PXL_20250608_035929100_3f2686d808.jpg 500w, /uploads/medium_PXL_20250608_035929100_3f2686d808.jpg 750w, /uploads/large_PXL_20250608_035929100_3f2686d808.jpg 1000w" sizes="100vw" width="1000"><img class="image_resized" style="width:45%;" src="/uploads/PXL_20250608_040628409_MP_851b1c20da.jpg" alt="PXL_20250608_040628409.MP.jpg" srcset="/uploads/thumbnail_PXL_20250608_040628409_MP_851b1c20da.jpg 117w, /uploads/small_PXL_20250608_040628409_MP_851b1c20da.jpg 500w, /uploads/medium_PXL_20250608_040628409_MP_851b1c20da.jpg 750w, /uploads/large_PXL_20250608_040628409_MP_851b1c20da.jpg 1000w" sizes="100vw" width="1000">On the second, yeah it's more of a silhouette than a rim light, but I think I know where I went wrong so I'm going to count it as a learning experience.<img src="/uploads/IMG_9097_354af9259f.jpg" alt="A black and white photo of a man sitting in front of an octagonal light source. The light is on and the man is in silhouette" srcset="/uploads/thumbnail_IMG_9097_354af9259f.jpg 234w,/uploads/small_IMG_9097_354af9259f.jpg 500w,/uploads/medium_IMG_9097_354af9259f.jpg 750w,/uploads/large_IMG_9097_354af9259f.jpg 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="1000px">

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