remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
- From: "don bishop" <w6smb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "optacon list" <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 09:21:29 -0700
Just changed the subject from "some comments about the optacon" or at least
pretty much that subject line.
Anyway, I remember the first time I actually used my first optacon.
I was in a training class given by TSI in Palo Alto. It was held at a motel
where we students stayed for a week or two weeks depending on people's
schedules.
TSI also had a suite there where the training was conducted.
They brought us into a training room with a long table. In front of each of us
was this big
wooden box and a brand new Optacon sitting inside. I think it still had the
plastic around the case. In those days the OPtacon came in a large wooden
carrying case with thick foam padding. (soft packs were not even heard of
yet.)
It was like being at the door of a new world and even just seeing the unit
without using it was liberating. I can still remember the new smell of the
unit with
the leather protective case.
And then the fun began. So did the work. <smile>
The excitment of actually reading print material, even if it was just a
training document, was something I'll never forget.
Since that day in 1972 I've read virtually every kind of printed material at
one time or another.
I still am a bit in awe when I look at an old book published in the early 1900s
or before and realize that many many blind people lived in "homes for the
blind",
or other institutional or protective settings, and that reading such a book
independently wasn't even considered possible.
It does put the progress in the world in some sort of perspective. I think
this is largely why I've always felt that the discontinuance of Optacon
production
was truly a step backward from independence for blind people.
Don
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