Re: the Personal Computer was the greatest thing ever invented for the Blind
- From: "Dave Durber" <d.durber@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:10:25 -0400
Alan:
The Optacon does something that no OCR software can do on such a constant
basis. That is display an actual image of the printed letter under your
finger, without a piece of software first having to interpret the character as
a graphic, comparing that graphic with its comparison table, before converting
it to a printable character with its ASCII or Windows value.
I was a veracious reader of books from my local library, news paper articles,
household bills, discount coupons and many other forms of printed material. My
wife still uses an Optacon to read the mail.
It was great All you had to do in order to use the Optacon, once you had
completed the training, was turn it on, put the camera on the printed material
and track across the line and read the actual character images that passed
under the index finger of your right hand. No waiting for an operating System
to be loaded.
Admittedly, it was not the solution for everyone, but for me, it was my first
experience in coming close to being 100% being in charge of my personal
affairs, being able to read printed material when I chose to read it, without
having to depend on someone with vision having to read things to me when they
had the time to do so.
Before an accident happened to me, in which I injured my right shoulder, using
the Optacon, I was able to read between 70 and 80 words per minute.
Sincerely:
Dave Durber
----- Original Message -----
From: Alan Dicey
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 10:55 AM
Subject: the Personal Computer was the greatest thing ever invented for the
Blind
Dear Cy,
I respectfully disagree with you!
I am sure the Personal Computer was the greatest thing invented to assist the
Blind so far!
It will read anything also!
And it allows Blind to perform work as fast if not faster than Sighted people.
With Best Regards,
Alan
Miami, Florida
Alan Dicey, President
United States Braille Chess Association - USBCA
"Yes, Blind or Visually Impaired People Can, and Do, Play Chess!!!"
United States Braille Chess Association Home Page:
http://AmericanBlindChess.org
----- Original Message -----
From: Cy Selfridge
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 10:37 AM
Subject: RE: One or two spaces
The Optacon was the single greatest invention of all times for a blind
person.
It is the only device which would allow a blind person to read almost
anything printed.
Cy, The anasazi
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Dave Durber
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 6:32 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: One or two spaces
As an Optacon user, (Remember that useful gadget), to read books, I notice
that the amount of space between sentences still seems to be the equivalent of
two spaces.
There is a feature in Word that will create the equivalent amount of space
between sentences as if you had pressed the SPACE BAR twice.
You can have word do the same thing between paragraphs but with the
equivalent amount of space between paragraphs as if you had pressed the ENTER
key twice.
I have not used these functions personally, this is because I have no trust
in a Microsoft product to do always what it claims to do. Oh, dear me,
untrusting cynic that I am.
So, being as I am becoming an old fuddy duddy,, I will go on tapping the
SPACE BAR twice between sentences and tapping the ENTER key twice to put a
blank line to insert a blank line between paragraphs and before and after
headings.
HTH
Sincerely:
Dave Durber
----- Original Message -----
From: CrisMunoz54
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 5:36 PM
Subject: RE: One or two spaces
Two spaces are from the days of the typewriter. Go one space. It'll look
better.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Adrian Spratt
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 2:33 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: One or two spaces
Hi, John. Just to save anyone a duplication of effort, this Wikipedia
link is to the same article as the one given to us by G.W. Cox.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of john R. Vaughn
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 4:57 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: One or two spaces
Adrian and list, interesting issue of whether to single or double space
after the terminal punctuation for a sentence and the beginning of the next
sentence. Believe it or not, the link below is from wicipedia on the matter
and I found this from doing a google search.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_spacing#History
As for me, always a double space bar between sentences, I am going to try
the one space bar and and have sighted folks tell me if the MS Word program
does infact do some sort of variable spacing to clearly indicate the end of one
sentence and another.
John
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Adrian Spratt
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 2:04 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: please help
Hi, Richard.
You couch your argument in terms of blind computer users making sure
their work looks as polished as our sighted colleagues. I agree with this
concept, but you do it a disservice by flatly asserting that double spaces meet
that objective. I was persuaded to switch to single spaces while using word
processors by several sighted people who observed too much space at the ends of
my sentences and by a man who has published the two standard texts on
typesetting and typeset conventions.
There may be special circumstances, such as the tab issue brought up by
Ted Lisle, but the Wikipedia entry to which G.W. Cox sent a link lays out the
history and current general preference.
This is one of those questions that is very hard for us to grasp because
the impact is purely visual. Unsupported, strongly worded assertions don't help.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Richard P. Kelly
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 10:14 AM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: please help
Greetings all,
Proper formatting of a print document still calls for two spaces at the
end of a sentence, after a colon, and perhaps elsewhere. This remains true even
with mono spaced or proportionally spaced fonts. New word processors often
assure proper style is used if auto correct and grammar checking is on. Still,
we want what we print to look as polished as what our sighted colleagues
produce; if not better!
Cordially, Richard P. Kelly rpkelly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
rich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.new-visions-network.com
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Lisle, Ted (CHFS DMS)
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 6:50 AM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: please help
Now that's interesting. I Have seen one space from time to time, but
never knew why. I sometimes long for the days of Pica and Elite, when laying
out a document. In the immortal words of Edith Bunker, "You knew where you were
then." However, I've managed to figure out which font-size combinations are
functional equivalents of the old Pica, 10-space-per-horozontal-inch, format,
and that's what I use. Vertical spacing will have to look after itself.
Ted
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Adrian Spratt
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 6:37 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: please help
I preface this suggestion by acknowledging there's a debate about whether
there should be one or two spaces after the end of a sentence. Despite my
pre-computer typing training, I have been convinced that modern print fonts
mean that two spaces are no longer desirable. So the way I solve the problem
you describe is to search for two spaces and replace with one space. If you
think there might be an odd number of spaces, say three, then search for that
number first and replace with a single space. Then search for all instances of
a double space and replace with that single space.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Hina
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 6:24 PM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: please help
hi,
i am writing a lots of reports and i did figure out formatting issues,
but i am not sure how will i know if there are extra spaces between words,
sentenses and paragraphs without reading word by word which is so time
consuming? for sighted people, microsoft word highlights but is there any way
to know with jaws? microsoft's spell checke option says that there is extra
space and suppose to change it to make corrections, but they still remain and
is there a way to deal with this issue with jaws?
i would be very thankful for your help.
hina.
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