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

  • From: "Francesca Diodati" <mdiodat@xxxxxx>
  • To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 11:00:37 +0200

Pam and all, that's the cool thing about the optacon: when you wonder: "Am I 
really reading what I think I'm reading?" and you check and you still read 
the same thing, then you're really reading correctly!! With scanners I'm 
always in doubt about what I'm reading...I can't stand scanners, I can't 
stand anything giving interpretations for me. I do have a scanner and use it 
occasionally, but I always feel restless when I do.
Reading books with the optacon takes time and effort, but to know that I can 
go to the bookstore and buy me anything I want, take it home and read it 
without any "intermediary" makes it worth it. I admit that if audio is 
available I choose audio, though I do like to read with the optacon a lot, 
also because I really like to have a direct contact with the page, so to 
speak.

I'm subscribed to Astronomy Magazine, and that is of course full of 
pictures. I bet even the most advanced scanner users among us wouldn't even 
attempt to read such a magazine with a scanner.

I also notice that when I read with the optacon my attention is greater than 
when I read with speech at the PC. I guess it has to do with the fact that 
with the optacon we're directly involved, and are not read to. Maybe the 
same happpens with braille, but I haven't used it enough to tell.

Fran
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pam Drake" <pamdrake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 1:20 AM
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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