Stephen Steppens
I recently had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Stephen Steppens who works on the switchboard at Clarity.
Stephen is a great character and loves to chat and so I was delighted when he agreed to be interviewed by our volunteer journalist, Louise.
Stephen three passions are gadgets, guide dogs and Doctor Who and here he explains about his latest gadget to help him get around – the Trekker Breeze GPS.
“My Trekker Breeze [GPS] – is wonderful. This is my out and about gadget. I love this thing – you know how you get something new and your old things just go into the shade?
“It’s got the voice of “Daniel” which is what you hear on the Kings Cross tannoy. You programme your routes and landmarks into it – I’ve got about 29 routes and landmarks.
“You can put, say, someone’s house in and it will tell you when you’re there so that’s really useful for getting around. It tells you where the pedestrian crossings are and things like that – the dog will do so much but I’m planning for his retirement, he’ll retire when he’s about nine years old.
“And at least if you work, you can buy things like that on a credit card and pay it back over a period of time. If you’re on the dole or on benefits, there’s no way you can do that.”
The Trekker Breeze costs around £550, which is a lot of money, especially if you aren’t fortunate enough to have a job.
Donations to GLFB help our members to provide advice and support to blind and partially sighted people to the most of available technology and equipment.
Here is a video of the Trekker Breeze in action:
