The Echo is a black column around fifteen inches tall and four inches wide. At around an inch thick, the Amazon Echo Dot is exactly the same as the normal Amazon Echo but with the bottom 90 per cent of the shiny black column (comprising the big bassy speaker) lopped off. The Dot may be smaller, but it still has a great-sounding speaker in there (and it can also be connected via a cable or Bluetooth to a beefier speaker if you wish for a bigger sound) and is a snip at £50 compared to the standard Echo price-tag of £150.

There is no screen and the Echo is permanently on. You just talk to the air and the Echo’s voice, known as ‘Alexa’, responds. There are a couple of buttons on the top but these are really never used day-to-day.

It’s probably easier to ask what the Echo can’t do. All you have to do is start your instruction by saying “Alexa” before your question or request. For example, “Alexa, play me a Queen song” or “Alexa, order me some more Toilet Duck” and within a trice you’re listening to your favourite tunes or running to the door. Well ok, perhaps deliveries aren’t that instantaneous but with next-day delivery it’s almost that quick.

 Seven things a blind person can ask their Amazon Echo

As a blind person the Amazon Echo offers loads of useful functions – my current favourite requests are:

Several thousand ‘skills’ are available to Alexa – these are like apps you can enable to give her added abilities. For example you can ask “Alexa, enable the National Rail skill” to be able to plan train journeys and get information on delays. Skills can be searched for and enabled through the Alexa app on iPhone or Android mobiles but can also be enabled through the Echo itself. Just say “Alexa, enable the Coffee Chef skill”.

If you say, “Alexa, enable the Birdsong skill” the Echo will play you any bird’s song or test you to see if you can guess a mystery song – so although you can’t check Twitter on the Echo yet you can check your tweets (sorry, I couldn’t help making that joke).

You can also control other smart devices such as the Philips Hue lights, the Nest thermostat and your Sonos wifi speakers. And if you want to control any electrical device around the house by your voice alone, you can buy a simple wifi-enabled switchbox.

Plug the switchbox into the wall and then plug into it the device that isn’t itself ‘smart’ and you will be able to turn it on and off with a command to your Echo.

Whilst all of the above is fantastic fun for everyone, the applications for people with disabilities are obvious. Anyone who struggles with technology or physically controlling their environment would benefit from the Echo (or cute little Echo Dot) so long as they are able to speak and hear well enough.

The Echo can remind you to take your tablets – just ask Alexa to set any number of alarms on a daily, weekday or weekend basis. You can also add appointments to your calendar so you won’t miss another dentist or doctor’s appointment.

Ask over breakfast “Alexa – what am I doing today?” or “What are my appointments next Tuesday?”.

Yes it works fine. Use VoiceOver on my phone to speak out commands to the Echo and Alexa can understand every word.

This means that someone using a communication aid, like Professor Hawking, would also be able to use it without difficulty. You don’t even need to have good speech to use the Amazon Echo.

Richard Godley, Team Leader of RNIB’s Advice Service, reminds us that caution should be exercised when using voice-activated gadgets especially as a blind or partially sighted person. “One of the main issues is that when the user asks Alexa a question, the Echo uses Google or another search engine to source the answer and often, the first few results are bought by companies who pay to have their websites displayed at the top of the results page. In reality, expensive goods or services or “fake news” may be relayed at the top, thus relayed to the Echo user as fact or as the best commercial option available and users may not ask hear the second or third result from Google to compare it to.”

Paul Porter, Technology For Life Team Manager at RNIB, said: “Products such as the Amazon Echo, Google Home and RNIB In Your Pocket have taken voice recognition to a new level. It is true, if you search for something on Google, the results will be skewed by advertising. However, as the technology improves and gadgets get better at sifting through what has been paid for and what is organic, I’m sure companies will want to be included.” Paul added, “Anyone using an internet device needs to be mindful of pitfalls and scams. Given that voice activation is so good now users shouldn’t be afraid to use it. You could even say the same of any technology that uses the internet.”