Contents
- Entertainment (TV, movies, and more)
- Label Maker
- Visor
- Glasses Shelf
Entertainment (TV, Movies, and more)
Movies and TV are fun for everyone. Big and close are good. My daughter likes to sit in the third row at the movies and, until recently, right in front of our 65-inch TV in her own chair for TV at home. MaxTV glasses work but rarely get used in our house because of their limited field of view. They let my daughter come back and watch from the couch with the rest of the family, but typically she preferred to sit right up close instead because she couldn’t see the whole screen at once with the MaxTV glasses. But we recently made a break through in home TV watching for less than half the cost of MaxTV glasses and my daughter loves it! See more below on this new break-through setup as well as other ways to make TV and movies even better: using audio description and enlarging subtitles
Break-Through TV Setup (TV mirroring to portable monitor)
My daughter loves this new setup. We use an HDMI splitter to send a duplicate video stream to a secondary monitor that she views on the couch. All for about a hundred bucks. Here is what it looks like:
Supplies List—Here is what we used in our setup:
- Arzopa S1 Table 15.6″ portable monitor (now $59.99 at Amazon)
- Monitor floor stand ($29.99)
- Amazon Basics HDMI splitter ($8.72)
- Mini HDMI Male to HDMI Female adapter cable ($8.10)
- 15 Foot HDMI cable to run from splitter to couch (we already had one, but something like this)
- Short HDMI cable to connect splitter to devices (we already had one, but something like this)
- Regular extension cord and 2 USB charging bricks (we had these already; one of the charging bricks needs to be at least 10 or 12 watts—we tried a 5-watt one for the portable monitor, and it overheated—our 12-watt one is doing fine.)
- Optional: An HDMI switch can be used to connect multiple devices to the TV (such as Roku, Nintendo Switch, and Cable Box). We are using this 3-way HDMI switch ($12) but need to upgrade to more ports because we have too many devices!
Wiring diagram: (Note: use splitter output 1 for your TV because that is the one that carries the sound, and use output 2 for the portable monitor).
Audio Description
When watching at home, most recent content is available with with audio descriptions. If it is, you will see the audio description logo (shown above) listed in similar places to high-definition logos and so on. When you start playing a movie on Netflix or your favorite platform, choose the option to change the language (just as you would to switch between English and Spanish, for example) and select “English AD” or “English Audio Description” (or your preferred language with AD if available). Now you’ll get a narration of the onscreen action filling in the gaps in the dialog. My daughter won’t watch without it!
Netflix lets you browse content with audio description available (https://www.netflix.com/browse/audio-description). Apple TV settings lets you turn on audio description by default so you can set it and forget it. (Others in the family can still selectively turn it off one movie at a time if they want when they watch without you—but they have no trouble seeing the small print in the language menu—so let them do the work.)
In movie theaters, things work (or don’t work, as the case may be) differently. You’ll need to see someone at the ticket counter and request audio description equipment. They should give you a headset that will give the audio description once the movie starts. Watch out – they’ll try to give you something that helps those who are hard of hearing because so few visually impaired people are at the movies that they’ve likely never helped anyone with this equipment before and don’t know how it works. Unfortunately, our experience is that at most theaters, the equipment either never works or takes 20 minutes of troubleshooting to get to work. Unfortunately, previews don’t have audio descriptions, so you can’t test it and start debugging until the movie starts, meaning you miss the start of the movie. But we have found one local theater where it works well, and now we always go there—problem solved.
Enlarge Subtitles
Sometimes, you want to read subtitles (if the audio description isn’t reading them to you). It turns out you can enlarge them! For example, on Netflix, this is how you do it.
Label Maker
We didn’t realize how amazingly useful a label maker would be until we bought an earlier model of the Brother P-Touch PTD410 and started using it with 12mm and 18mm label tape that prints white text on a black background (which my daughter much prefers to black on white). (If we’d bought the more expensive PTD610BT, we could go up to the 24mm label tape and label in an even larger font.) This has been great for so many things.
- Labeling microwave and oven buttons
- Labeling measuring cups and spoons
- Labeling washer and dryer settings
- Label glasses cases and other essentials with a cell-phone number to help them get returned (Yes, this has worked in the past—what a life saver!!!)
Visor
A hat with a brim or a visor is so helpful to block the sun. We recommend one with a black underside to the brim. My daughter prefers a visor to a hat because it is easier to manage with her hair. Our biggest trouble was working out how to stop losing visors. What works is clipping it to a backpack or purse when not in use. To make that easy my daughter leaves a Carabiner (her favorite is the Nite Ize S-biner #3 with slide lock) clipped to each of her bags, and my wife sewed a D-Ring to the visor.
Glasses Shelf
My daughter was three when we bought our first home. One of the first things I did after the boxes were gone was install a shelf for glasses inside the entrance to the house (the entrance we use, not the front door). Now she has a place just for them that is distinct from the clutter and mess in the rest of the house.
Update: Now that my daughter is older, the shelf has expanded with a pocket organizer on the wall to hold even more gear (not just glasses, but swim goggles, lens wipes, binoculars, etc.).
