Re: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon

  • From: "don bishop" <w6smb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 10:06:07 -0700

Hi Harry,

Okay!  I thought your name sounded familiar but just wasn't sure.  

I was able to get that second week off from work as I recall, so I got to do a 
two-week training.  It really helped too, when returning to my job the 
following 
week.  

Don

On Wed, 17 May 2006 12:47:26 -0400, Harry Bassler wrote:

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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