Jake and Andrew Irvines' story
Jake and Andrew Irvine
We've made the study a place for reading in our house, Jake enjoys the Oxford Reading Tree scheme they use at school and he has large-print versions of the readers but obviously he wants to read other books as well. We use the SmartView for bedtime stories and family time reading which Jake loves. Hairy Maclary is one of his favorites. Sometimes we realise we haven't seen him for a while and he has scurried upstairs to the study to use the SmartView.
Jake is also finding all sorts of novel uses for his kit. He takes his toy cars upstairs and uses the SmartView as a magnifier. The other day I walked in to find him examining the suspension on a toy motorbike!. He worked out all the dials and controls on his SmartView far quicker than we did
Andrew Irvine
I'm very pleased with my SmartView because I don't have to use my magnifier any more. The one at home is a bit different from the one at school because it has a screen that turns round and round. The children at school think the SmartView is a computer and my teacher lets them use it to make stuff bigger.
Jack Irvine
Ian McKie
For me it was a sudden shock to lose my sight, having been fully sighted most of my life, and with no understanding of what it is like not to be able to see, I felt isolated and for some time I went into a shell. Everything in my life was affected by it: my work, my family, my interest in reading the newspapers, my confidence, my car-racing hobby, my love of art, everything. You don’t realise that 90% of what you learn is through what you see. My inability to read articles in the newspaper excluded me from conversations at work. The SmartView is an invaluable tool that has helped bring my life back together and made me regain my confidence.
Ian McKie
Tommy and Dodi Harms
I like drawing comics and planes, I also like to build models of planes, cars and jets. Other children mess with my SmartView, most of them say they want one. They think it is cool. I like this because the machine helps me be friends with them. I feel bad about it too sometimes, as I have a problem that they don’t.
Tommy Harms
The SmartView has really helped with Tommy’s education. It has made it easier for him to succeed in school. Before he used to get headaches a lot from straining for ages to read regular print. With the SmartView it now takes half the time to read books or to do his homework. It has made a big difference.
Dodi Harms
Kate Jackson
I had seen my friends‘ video magnifiers, but their screens were much smaller than the SmartView and they were always complaining about the poor service they got. I was impressed with the SmartView, and even more so by the helpfulness of the HumanWare staff. After five years and a recent SmartView upgrade to a larger color screen, HumanWare’s back up has never let me down. I know that all I need to do is pick up the phone, tell them what the problem is and it will be fixed as quickly as they could possibly do it. I use my SmartView four to five hours everyday and have been able to pick up my love of reading again. Thanks to the SmartView, I have now read and written notes in 201 books, some with over 3000 pages.
Kate Jackson