My Love Of Technology And Where It's Taken Me So Far

Ever since I was a little girl I've loved technology. Tape recorders, watches and clocks that spoke the time aloud, Braille note-taking devices with Braille displays on them that pop the Braille dots out so that those Braille dots could be read by blind people, scanners that had speech output software so that a blind person could hear print items read aloud to him or her. You name the technology, I loved it! When my grandparents were alive they all said that they knew that when I grew up I'd do something in the technology field. Even in high school I had a teacher named Mr. P who believed in me the way that my grandparents believed in me. He handed me a Braille note-taking device called a BrailleNote which had speech output as well as a refreshable Braille display on it. When Mr. P handed me the BrailleNote he said "Now you tell me how to use this machine. I've never used it before and I know you can show me how to use it." At the time I didn't believe in myself at all. I tried to convince Mr. P that he was wrong to think that I could figure out a piece of technology that I'd never even used before. However he wasn't having any of it. I ended up figuring out how to use the BrailleNote and teaching Mr. P how to use it, just as he'd knew I could. So it's no surprise that my love of technology has lead me to participate in other neat activities throughout my life. In fact at the end of March 2017 I attended World Services for the Blind (WSB) so that I could learn how to use a Mac computer. I'd never used a Mac before and I knew that going to WSB would teach me something new that would help me continue making progress towards my dream of wanting to work for Apple. I attended WSB from March 27 2017 until June 9 2017. Since then I've been chasing my dream of wanting to work for Apple. While I was at WSB the first thing I learned about a Mac was the layout of the Mac's keyboard. As I said above I'd never seen a Mac in my life. However learning about how to navigate documents on a Mac using VoiceOver (the Mac's, iPhone's, Apple Watch's and iPod's screen reader), how to navigate the internet using a Mac as well as how to use numerous other apps on the Mac was truly a blast! A month or so after I'd graduated WSB's Apple VoiceOver at Work program I received someone's contact information who I was told was passionate about Apple the way I was passionate about Apple. So I stayed in touch with this person and after some time had gone by he told me about a way that I could complete a training course called AppleCare Technician Training. According to him participating in this AppleCare Technician Training would allow me to become Apple certified if I pass the necessary exams once I've read through all of the training material. As I communicated with this guy I was also in the process of raising money so that I could purchase a MacBook Pro for myself. A few weeks into starting the MacBook Pro fundraiser I was able to purchase a MacBook Pro! Once I'd accomplished getting a MacBook Pro I looked into the AppleCare Technician Training that I'd been told about which would allow me to become Apple certified. Once I'd read up on the AppleCare Technician Training a bit I contacted the people from Apple who actually create the training because I wanted to ask them some questions about how the training would be laid out for a totally blind person. When the Apple training staff contacted me in response to the emails I'd sent them regarding the training program I wanted to take I felt comfortable enough to explore Apple's training website and read up on the training program even more. Once i'd read up on the training program I used the left over money from my MacBook Pro fundraiser to purchase the AppleCare Technician Training. A week or so after I'd purchased the AppleCare Technician Training I received something in the mail from Apple that gave me directions on how to get myself set up for the AppleCare Technician Training. Since the directions I'd received were in print though I had a sighted friend message the directions to me so that VoiceOver speech output could read aloud the directions to me. However when it came to setting up which course I was going to take I ran into issues with VoiceOver. VoiceOver speech output correctly spoke aloud the different links that were on Apple's training website but VoiceOver speech output would not allow me to actually move forward once i'd selected which course I wanted to take. So I ended up having a sighted friend set up the course for me that I wanted to take. Everything is done online so once the course that I wanted to take had been set up I was able to read the material that was on Apple's training website. However after I'd played around with Apple's training website for some time I discovered that VoiceOver made it difficult for me to navigate the different frames that I had to move through. So I contacted Apple's training experts yesterday to ask them if there was any way that Apple could help me make this training experience easier than it's been for me so far. I'm interested to see what Apple's solution will be because after each chapter of the AppleCare Technician Training there's a test to see how much of the information that you went through, that you remember. So I say I'm interested to see what resolutions Apple will present to me, given that there has to be a way for us to keep track of how far I've progressed with this training.