Relatively new, blind CPAP user.

[brandtsteenkamp]

Hi everybody,

I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea just over a year ago after my wife threatened to tape my mouth shut. Home sleep study came back with an AHI of 23, placing me firmly in the moderate category.

I am using a Fisher and paykel Icon Auto, which as a blind individual, is practically impossible for me to adjust. No changing the humidifier settings, sence awake pressure, let alone screw about with the clinicians menu.

My first of probably many questions, when I replace the machine, what can I get without a bleeping dial on the front of it?

Second, the Bravida would probably be my favourite ⁿ if it did not hurt the side of my right nostril. It feels like somebody took a clothes peg and kept the right side of my right nostril in it overnight. If you can imagine, not fun at all. Please help? No matter if I use the small/extra Small or Medium/large pillows, it is always the same. I am a right side sleeper, most of the time anyway, if that would help.

[zonker]

Hi everybody,

welcome to the zoo! when you get the chance, would you be so kind as to fill out your equipment profile? once you do that, your equipment will show up at the bottom of each of your posts. sometimes people will not bother to read your first post or else won't remember what equipment you have. just makes it easier to know what you have.

i use the airift p10 nasal pillow mask. i don't know if you would want the pillow mask, but it has dead easy to adjust straps. they are just solid bands that go around your head. the adjustment part is either closer together or further apart!

good luck!

[Janknitz]

Wow, I've never thought about accessibility for vision impaired users. I can't think of any machine that would be great at that--they all have LCD menus for adjusting these days. The old Philips Respironics System One had a dial for the humidifier with a tactile click (if I am remembering correctly) BUT there was a known manufacturer's defect which caused these humidifiers to fail, so I wouldn't recommend them and that model wasn't all that great in any case.

This would be an interesting thing to bring up to the manufacturers--they really should be taking this into consideration. You might have a nice ADA class action lawsuit to get this remedied (just went to a conference that included info on ADA class actions and I can give you a name if you're interested in pursuing this).

I'd have to go home and play with my machine, but it MIGHT be possible to memorize how many button pushes to get to the humidifier menu and how many to adjust it on the ResMed machine, but other than that, I don't have any big suggestions.

Do you have any technology that can help--e.g. something to greatly magnify the screen so you can use it? I know that might be hard or impossible to use at bedside. I'm imagining using something like an iPhone to magnify the screen for you if you have sufficient vision for that to be practical.

One other thing, we don't recommend necessarily adjusting the humidifier "on the fly". If you have problems we suggest making ONE change (turn the humidifier up or down only one or two notches) and see how that is for one or more nights before making another adjustment based on whether that helps or makes things worse. So it may be that you can have help to set the humidifier where you want before bed, IF you're OK with that.

[Janknitz]

Oh, one other idea--and the techie people will have to tell us if this is possible:

You might be able to make adjustments to settings via the SD card read on your computer so your computer adaptations can help you read the data and settings. I'm not positive you can do this, but our technologically minded people can tell us whether this is possible.

[Violet West]

They need to make something voice activated for you. Alexa to the rescue? (The class action/ADA comment made above would of course be for U.S. users.)

For daily use, I don't adjust the settings at all, just turn it off via the button at the top of the machine if I need to get up. Otherwise, I do periodically check the readout after a day's sleep to see how many hours/what the results are, but if the pressure, humidity, and other settings are working, you really don't need to fiddle with it too much.

[Pugsy]

I am with Janknitz....I don't know of any machine that would let a blind person know what they were doing in terms of adjusting the pressures or humidity by touch. They all use the LCD screen primarily and it means you need a sighted person to help you out.
So sorry.

Edit...adjustments can be made using data written to the SD card but only with brand specific software like ResMed's ResScan and Respironics Encore Pro. I have no idea if the software for the F & P machines will do it or not.
Even if it did...it would mean being able to see the software stuff on the computer and get into the area of the software where changes to prescription are done and trust me...not easy to do...lots of extra work.
And the F & P software itself....if you can get it installed and use it...big PITA all by itself. Horrible software package and why a lot of DME cpap suppliers abandoned selling the F & P machines. It was just too much work for them to want to deal with.

[D.H.]

There is a need for a talking menu for those who are visually impaired or completely blind. Whether one exists or not, I don't know.

[chunkyfrog]

Usability.com lists ten free apps for reading screens on computers or other devices.
LCD screens on cpaps should be compatible with some.

[zonker]

Usability.com lists ten free apps for reading screens on computers or other devices.
LCD screens on cpaps should be compatible with some.

i was just going to mention screen readers. not that i know anything about it. seems last i heard(from a blind caller who called into a tech show some 3-4 years ago), most screen readers at that time sucked for any internet use because they read off EVERY bloody thing on the screen. wouldn't allow the user to choose what they needed to read.

perhaps that has changed by now and the original poster will let us know.

[chunkyfrog]

Usabilitygeek.com.
But I am sure there are more.

[Janknitz]

i was just going to mention screen readers. not that i know anything about it. seems last i heard(from a blind caller who called into a tech show some 3-4 years ago), most screen readers at that time sucked for any internet use because they read off EVERY bloody thing on the screen. wouldn't allow the user to choose what they needed to read.

perhaps that has changed by now and the original poster will let us know.

That may be so, but there's relatively little info on a CPAP screen, and if the OP wants to download data into sleepyhead or Oscar they can easily be configured to give him what info he wants.

However, I don't think a screen reader will work to see data on the LCD screen of a CPAP machine. It has to be software that can be used ON the CPAP itself--how would that happen? It shouldn't be terribly difficult to incorporate--they have blood glucose meters that can do it, but it would have to be something the manufacturer can program in.

[brandtsteenkamp]

Hi again everyone,

A screen reader would be ideal, and not that hard to implement, why? Answer, everything digital from your cpap to Dish Washer and Microwave needs an OS (Operating System) to "opperate". Most of these "Digital" devices use some kind of Linux distro, and, yes, I am almost 100% certain the same is true for most all cpap machines out there.

The GUI (Graphical user interface) screen reader for linux, Orca is very usable, I use it every day on my PC, infact I am using it to type this.

Voice activation would be nice, since I have 2 Amazon Echo devices in the house, though not very practical. Why? You would have to remember several commands, example: "Alexa, tell the cpap to change humidifyer to 5." On top of that, you would have to remember your exact settings, lets be honest here, who does?

Unfortunately I don't have any site at all, so a magnifyer wouldn't work for me. However software such as Seeing AI for iPhone, or Invision AI for Android would work just fine, if the manufacturers would just, stop, with, those, infernal, bleeping, icons!

Changing cpap settings on the computer would be really good, and yes, I know you can do so using the software from the manufacturers, however finding the software for the Fisher & Paykel icon has been, and still is a monumental pain in the posterior.

I appologise for the rant.

[chunkyfrog]

Perfectly understandable.
You have every right to be frustrated.
I know you are not alone; as a blind cpap user near me was on the forum some time ago.
Accessibility is full of blank spaces.
Sharing these concerns may well be the best way to push the process along.
Good luck.

[PaulKTF]

Sometimes the best solution is simply to ask someone else to help you make the adjustments you want to make to the machine's settings. Like others have said, you won't have to change the settings every night once you've figured out the pressure settings you want to set it to and the small handful of other settings you might want to change. I do wish all the CPAP machine manufacturers would make their machines accessible though- that would be fantastic.

[Janknitz]

Write the CEO of Fisher Paykel, his name is Lewis Gradon, and maybe cc it to Andrew Somervale who is Fisher Paykel's Vice President of products and technology https://www.fphcare.com/us/our-company/ ... anagement/ and tell them what you need and why.

You might be able to get FP to share the clinical software with you, or at least put them on notice that it is the manufacturer's responsibility under ADA to make this HEALTHCARE equipment accessible to all users.