Re: Two Weeks of Surveys, update Pril 30, 2006

From: "Linda Gehres" <ljgehres@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:19:11 -0700
Hi Fran and all,

I'm brand new to the list.  My name is Linda Gehres now, but some of you 
long, long ago might remember me as Linda Taube from the San Leandro area 
initially.  I am oh, so glad to know of this list and to be able to share 
experiences with other Optacon users!

Long ago, I read a biography of Buddy Holly.  This was before scanners and 
computers were really accessible to us, and I wanted to read anything about 
Buddy I could get my hands on.  I started but didn't finish a couple of 
borrowed spiritually related books but realized I'd be keeping the friend's 
books for way too long and never got my own copies.  I'm seriously thinking 
of buying a couple of the books written by Joel Witburn having information 
about all of the songs that hit the Top 100 Billboard Magazine charts since 
the magazine's inception.  Seems to me that scanners do poorly at reading 
information in columns, and one can do that so much better with an Optacon.

Wow, I wish I'd thought to answer some of the survey questions as some did 
with regard to seeing displays on TV's and other screens.  When I had an XM 
satellite receiver, I did try to read its screen with the Optacon but 
couldn't.  I was, however, able to read the buttons on a telephone which was 
new to me at one time with the Optacon and was so delighted I could read the 
phone's buttons for orientation purposes.  I also concur with the idea of 
wishing I could at times read the computer screen with an Optacon in that 
time of computer trouble when JAWS doesn't work.  I'm probably pretty 
typical in most of my response areas to the survey, and thank you, 
Catherine, for the inception of the survey, and to you, Don, for the 
creation of this list.  Hope I'm making some sense as I write.  Thanks to 
all!

Linda Gehres


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pam Drake" <pamdrake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2006 4:20 PM
Subject: RE: Two Weeks of Surveys, update Pril 30, 2006


> Fran,
>
> I haven't  read a novel with the Optacon in years, but have read a few.
>
> The first book I read with the Optacon was "Jonathan Livingston Seagull."
> If you know anything about the book, that was a very unique experience. 
> It
> is an allegory, but some of the concepts were so unique that sometimes I 
> had
> to go back and make sure I read what I read.  <smile>
>
> The same thing happened to me in 1978 when I read an article from a copy 
> of
> the New York Post I found on a restaurant booth.  The article turned out 
> to
> be false, but it announced the first cloned human baby.  The article did
> generate a lot of discussion for a few weeks about the possibility of such
> an event being possible.  As I read the story I asked myself, "Am I really
> reading what I think I'm reading?"
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> On Behalf Of Shari Weir
> Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2006 1:57 PM
> To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Two Weeks of Surveys, update Pril 30, 2006
>
> Fran, I, too, read novels, as well as nonfiction books with the optacon. I
> do listen to some books on tape, but for lots of reasons, I often choose 
> the
> print versions.
>
> Shari
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Francesca Diodati" <mdiodat@xxxxxx>
> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2006 2:32 PM
> Subject: Re: Two Weeks of Surveys, update Pril 30, 2006
>
>
>> This is all very interesting, Catherine! Thanks so much again for doing
> this
>>
>> As for the fact on print, I think most respondants know what it looks 
>> like
>> because there are more blind adults who lost their sight later in life
> than
>> people blind from birth. But I assure you that if you only asked people
>> blind from birth, to which I belong, you'd find that a very small
> percentage
>> knows what print looks like, and some aren't even taught to sign their
> name.
>> I guess that the tendency is changing from a more print-oriented teaching
> in
>> the past, to a more braille and computer oriented teaching nowadays. I
> began
>> school in 1977 and in first grade I only wrote by hand, even though I had
> no
>> sight. In second grade I started using a typewriter, and that was my only
>> way of writing in school up to college, till computers came into the
>> picture. I was only taught braille at 10 and occasionally had some
> textboks
>> brailled for certain subjects like foreign languages, but I never used it
> to
>> write anything in my life. In fact I don't think I can say I can write
>> braille.
>>
>> About the fact on reading novels, I do read novels with the
> optacon...Maybe
>> I'm the only one! LOL
>>
>> Thanks again
>>
>> Fran
>>
>>
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>
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Re: Two Weeks of Surveys, update Pril 30, 2006

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