Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle. — Steve Jobs
Now let make something perfectly clear. Steve Jobs is no Jesus, he is no Messiah i am not hear to preach about how he is the greatest thing since sliced bread, do not be miss lead.
I am hear to share a story of sorts.
Because of this man's dedication to his work i now have a phone that i can SEE comfortable on. For me and a host of other visually impaired and from what i understand hearing impaired people all over the world, that is an IRREPLACEABLE gift.
If you have not lived unable to see your bestfriends face from across the street, to not be sure who called you in a room, who is smiling at you in class. If you haven't felt the panic that can grip a human being when you drop something in a room or someone starts to give you directions to find somewhere you've never been or to take a bus you've never taken. If you have not felt the frustrating of not being able to finish your homework on time not because you are lazy, or tired or uninterested but because your eyes JUST wont work!
Then you would not understand the simplest comfort of being able to check the time, a missed call, an email or a grocery list without feeling like everything in the world is fighting with you just to live, as though failure is always looming over your head, over your eyes daring you to move a muscle so it can attack..
Steve Jobs made it possible for the visually and hearing impaired to feel equal (not to BE that's a give, but to feel is a totally different cup of tea) with his invention of the iphone, mac book and all other devises he birthed. More importantly? he did so for free, there was no 'added cost' to get a 'feature' to help you see like other phone companies give you. Just as one did not ask for a visual hindrance, one was not asked to pay to 'fix' it.
I asked some of my VI (visually impaired or low visioned however you want to slice it) friends what they thought slash what the availability of the iphone means to them and here is what some people had to say about it:
Jodie: "...he Zoom function is invaluable for me. It's fun to play on apps and useful to be able to check emails and train times/bus times."
Devon: "I'm a huge Apple fan. Simply for their thoughtfulness. The incredible amount of consideration for the blind and visually impaired is virtually unheard of in large companies such as Apple. From their iPods to their Macs they all have great accessibility for the blind and visually impaired."
I know this post took me a while but i wasn't trying to 'get on the bandwagon' *not that late anyhow as his celebration of life was today i believe?) I feel extremely grateful to him for his commitment to his work and felt like saying so publicly in the wake of his death. On that note, enjoy the following tribute pictures pulled from my instagram stream, you know, from my iphone ;) Credit to their original owners, everyone was re-posting so i dunno who what belongs to to credit it. :(
One more follow up post on this topic (my top favorite iphone apps) to come! :D
