Carol is a senior who attends a low vision support group in Hometown. In January, Cody began traveling down to their meeting site to teach Carol and several other group members how to use their iPhones to increase their independence.

They started with the basics — learning to use VoiceOver and gestures to operate the phone when they can't see the screen.They covered navigating the web and browsing websites. And they learned to use Siri.

They also covered accessing podcasts and Disney+, lessons they had just completed before the stay-at-home order went into effect.

The group lessons had to stop, but Carol didn't want to stop learning. So she and Cody have continued training, connecting by phone and using FaceTime.

Carol has used this time to learn to manage her contacts list on her phone and to use the phone as a tool to dictate notes — from creating a grocery list to keeping track of her appointments.  She also learned to use the Seeing AI app to convert text to speech. This allows her to read her own mail, check the labels on food packaging and read any other text.

Her new goal is to learn to use Zoom to keep in contact with her family and friends. Go Carol!

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