In which I talk about the production that is Going Out

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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

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

Tech and Disability

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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">

Aimed for rim lit, got silhouette

Using my drone to capture natural contrasts

An split overhead view of a creek. On the left side a large tree dominates the picture, the ground is completely covered in dirty brown water. On the right the rivulet can be clearly seen within its normal banks.

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So about a week ago I was fiddling with the drone and I wanted to test out the way point flight mode that comes with it. Essentially what you do is set up points along a flight path and then tell the drone to go and fly that route.It's pretty cool, not only can you set things like height and speed, but every way point allows you to set things like gimbal tilt, zoom to be using etc. The drone then handles the transition from one way point to the next.So what I did is go down to a local rivulet and plotted a course from a bridge, along the winding path of the creek and to an open area.&nbsp;So I got this, which I'm quite happy with.<figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://youtu.be/H-4udt91Y7E"><div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.2493%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H-4udt91Y7E" style="position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%; top: 0; left: 0;" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></div></figure>With the DJI way point system, you can save flight paths so that you can refly it as many times as you want.&nbsp;Fast forward to last weeks heavy rains and during a break in the weather I thought I would try and refly that path and see what I could get. So I went back down to that rivulet, setup and flew that path. As promised the drone flew exactly the same path and captured some amazing footage.I decided to get a little fancy and see if I could do a side by side video. One side showing the rivulet on a good day, and the other after the big rains. Here's the result<figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://youtu.be/l37c0iQlTIM"><div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.2493%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l37c0iQlTIM" style="position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%; top: 0; left: 0;" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></div></figure>I am still very much a novice at this, but I do have to say that it IS hitting two of my sweet spots, flying AND media production.

Wheelchair Photography - more droning

If you're going to build a project to help disabled people, please talk to disabled people

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<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://rexasi-pro.spindoxlabs.com/">https://rexasi-pro.spindoxlabs.com/</a>What is it:It’s a project that ostensibly wants to develop a “Swarm AI Navigation/Self Driving” system for power wheelchairs.This would involve not only an onboard system of sensors and computers to drive the chair, but a pair of small drones to continually scan the area around the chair enabling what they call “Collaborative Navigation”, that is using the data from the chair and the drones to give the system the most up to date information of the situation around the chair so it can plot the best way forward.So I’m kind of in two minds here.Firstly the tech geek “ooh shiny” part of me really wants to see the setup. It sounds like an awesome project to get involved with and would involve all sorts of cool tech and problems to solve.Secondly the powerchair user part of me really, really wants to know if they actually spoke to a wheelchair user before coming up with the idea.Look, I’m coming at this from my own experience in using powered and manual chairs, I’m not purporting to speak for anyone else but myself.Operating a wheelchair while out and about can be an exercise in extreme frustration and operating in crowded environments can be even more so. However by and large the challenge is more about dealing with the large chaotic system that is the human mob. Not only are you on the look out for any obstacles or accessibility issues, but you’re dealing with a herd of people that:<ul><li>By and large have trouble avoiding bumping into other people, let alone a large wheeled object</li><li>Can at any single point change direction because they saw something or someone they want to check on, and oh isn’t that necklace lovely, ouch something just ran over my foot.</li></ul>Throw in the fact that you don’t have visibility over the crowd (ye gods I miss that, I’m 194cm tall, I used to be able to see for miles in crowds, sigh) and you’re basically hoping like hell that you’re not going to injure someone.Hrmm looking at that I can see where the idea for the project came from (and why it triggers my inner geek).To be honest the biggest problem for me in this project isn’t the AI Assisted driving bit (though I don’t trust it in a car, and I’m really going to struggle trusting it in my wheelchair), no, it’s the drones. While having two scout drones scooting about the place doing lidar scans to map the room you’re in sounds cool, in reality what you have is two really noisy devices flying around peoples heads at a time when no one is really watching where they’re going.Someone is going to cop a drone to the head.It’s just not practical, and any wheelchair user would have been able to tell them that from the start.We see this time and again, where a tech project is started with the stated goal of assisting people with disabilities, but they don’t actually involve anyone with a disability in planning or developing the projects.Who knows, I may be completely wrong, and in twenty years, I’ll be flying down the footpath with my own cloud of microdrones constantly scanning the world around me, but somehow I don’t think so.

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