Hello tom, I also used the Optacon when I began working for the United Nations as a professional staff in 1980. It was an enormous help at that time, although my proficiency was not good enough to master the challenge of quickly reading huge United Nations documents stsreaming daily into my office. Today, I still have my Optacon sitting in my home office like in a museum. I have no more need for it. Advances in access technology have taken over. I wonder if there are some folks out there still using the Optacon? Best regards, Smart -----Original Message----- From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Lange Sent: 20 October 2010 18:28 To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: the Personal Computer was the greatest thing ever invented for the Blind Hi, I've used Optacons since 1978, when I was hired by IBM as a programmer trainee. The Optacon was the only way that I could read my 3270 display terminal at the time; the Talking Terminal wouldn't read the APL characters that I used to write code. I agree with the statement that the Optacon really helped me to see how things are laid out both on paper and on screen, which is a huge help. While screen readers have been a godsend, I have definitely noticed a decline in blind people's ability to spell the written word, and I blame this on the de-emphasis on Braille in our educational system. It appalls me that only 10 percent of blind people in the U.S. read Braille, and, if it were up to me, I would make Braille education mandatory, unless it could be demonstrated that a student has a physical limitation that prevents him/her from reading Braille. 90 percent Braille illiteracy is, to my mind, nothing short of obscene. You can talk about lack of manpower to properly teach it, lack of funding, et cetera et cetera, but what that says to me is that there's a callous disregard by the government for the literacy of blind people in this country, and that makes me furious. Surely I can't be the only one who feels this way. Tom