Re: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
- From: "Linda Gehres" <ljgehres@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 16:54:33 -0700
Don, what memories your e-mail evokes! I remember going to Palo Alto in
1975 with several others from Social Security Administration and staying at
a Best Western and being transported to the TSI headquarters. Ironically,
when my brother began working for a company called Catalytica in Mountain
View, he told me that his employer was right nextdoor to the TSI facility
which by the early 80's had moved. But I digress. At the time I was in
class, there were also a couple of sighted people being trained to work with
new Optacon users. One of them wrote a letter to us just after he returned
home, and I remember actually trying to decipher his signature. At last I
understood why even sighted people have difficulty in distinguishing the
handwriting of others.
Linda Gehres
----- Original Message -----
From: "Harry Bassler" <HBassler@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 9:47 AM
Subject: Re: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
> Don,
> I was in the second class at TSI just behind you.
> Harry
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "don bishop" <w6smb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "optacon list" <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 12:21 PM
> Subject: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
>
>
>> 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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>
>
> To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to:
>
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>
> Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message
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>
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