Hello Listers,

I work as a Consumer Advocate with the San Andreas Regional
Center in California.  I am totally blind and have Cerebral Palsy
both from birth.  I use an electric wheelchair with assistants.
I have reasonably good use of my hands and the rest of my upper
body.

The majority of my time is spent out in the field traveling in my
van.  My biggest challenge is being able to use my cell phone
totally independent of others.  Right now, I have to depend on my
staff to place all my calls for me because   The buttons are way
to small with very little spacing in between.  Although my
overall spasticity is relatively mild, there are lots of times
when I end up losing calls while in the process of  being handed
the phone.  My hand jumps,  and I end up unintentionally hitting
1 or more buttons.  Occasionally I even loose the phone
altogether.

The mottle is a Motorola 02044  I think it may be from a group of
phones that the agency has recycled.  From looking at phones of
colleagues and friends, the brand doesn't seem to matter.  They
all seem to have the same draw backs across the bored.

The other issue for me is finding a service provider with a voice
menuing option.  Others who are totally blind and use cell phones
pagers etc, have told me they all face the same issue of   having
to rely on others to do their programming for them.

So my question would be what are my alternatives here?  Is this
an issue for lots of you out there?  Any recommendations of web
sites or groups addressing these issues?  Not only am I trying to
resolve these issues on a work level, but somewhere down the
road, I would like my own cell phone  and or pager.  However if
the technology is truly as limited as it appears, I don't want to
make the investment at this time.

Please feel free to pass this along to as many sources as you
think might be of help here.  If there's something better out
there,  I would like to be able to go to my agency with it ASAP.

Thank you in advance,

Gary Peterson