[optacon-l] Re: Print Simetry
- From: Karla Westjohn <kawstjhn@xxxxxxx>
- To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2012 12:24:49 -0500
And I fault TSI's marketing for that. They seemed to denigrate Braille
when, actually, the best Optacon users tend to be good Braille readers.
Teaching methods which emphasized low intensity and threshhold settings
which, for beginners, made characters difficult to recognize and impeded
reading speed, as well as completely failing to tell students that the
Optacon could be used to examine other images, discouraged potential
users. My speed and proficiency occurred when I bought a barely used
Optacon in law school and did the opposite of what I had been taught to
do in junior high. I kicked magnification, intensity, and threshhold up
so that characters were easily recognizable. I read things I wanted and
needed to read--like the phone bill--like a 45-cent copy of
Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich--both far more
rewarding than the Dolch word list. As my proficiency increased, so did
my speed, and magnification, intensity, and threshhold settings came
down. I discovered that I could manipulate those settings and inspect
images. Immobilizing the rolling, cylindrical can allowed checking the
print label so that a Braille one could be made. Funny how much use one
can make of a device when its usefulness is clear.
Karla Westjohn
On 7/16/2012 9:25 PM, Cindy Handel wrote:
> Yes, there's so much we can see with the Optacon. People who have never
> used one really have no idea. It's so sad that people who might have
> started to learn to use it, and then gave it up, didn't stick with it.
> Sure, there are scanners, KNFB Readers, etc., which are faster for reading a
> quantity of material. But, nothing beats the Optacon for finding a
> particular section, quickly, and knowing what the print layout looks like.
>
> We've just had all three of our Optacons serviced by Richard Oehm in the
> past month or two. Boy, I'm thankful that he's there and still values the
> Optacon as much as we do. We now have three Optacons in perfect operating
> condition.
>
> Cindy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Catherine Thomas
> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 8:32 PM
> To: optacon list
> Subject: [optacon-l] Print Simetry
>
> Hi, Everyone,
> As most of you know, I work as a braille transcriber. Today, working with
> a print document and the Optacon, I read a complex table. It was relly
> pretty, visually speaking--nice neat columns with headings at the top of
> each one with all kinds of neat separation lines. I could appreciate it's
> visual appeal and it made me sad that I had to modify it to convey the
> same information in braille.
>
> It got me to thinking about the many images I've seen over the years
> because of the Optacon. To name a few: a crosword puzzle grid; a New York
> Times want ad; entries in a big fat telephone book; enties in dictionary;
> the various cute shapes of print bullets; bi-directional printing phrases
> running at 90 degrees to the rest of the print; entries in a TV guide and
> other TV listings; differences in the shapes of the letters in diffeerent
> fonts or typefaces; a music staff; labels in diagrams, etc. etc. etc.
>
> All these things I've seen with the Optacon and thousands of other things
> besides. For this aspect of the Optacon, I am truly grateful.
> Catherine
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -Catherine Thomas
> braille@xxxxxxxxx /
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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