Winifred, Could you explain a little more about rolling the sheet into the braillewriter so that you could sign your name? I have always found it difficult to place my signature properly even when finding the typed name with the optacon. Thanks. Lori Castner ----- Original Message ----- From: "Winifred Downing" <wmdowning@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, May 28, 2006 4:15 PM Subject: Re: Finding the Relative Size > Another story to add to the collection we are making. > > In California there is a law that any agency receiving state or federal > money must have on its board of directors at least 20 % of the members > blind persons. I am serving on such a board here, and recently all the > members were asked to take a number of donor letters and thank the persons > who sent the money. We were asked to use the agency's stationery. > > I looked at it with the optacon and saw that material had to be skipped at > the top and that, half way down the page on the right side, the names of > the officers and board of directors are listed. With my braille ruler, I > was able to measure the amount of space at the top and the right-hand > margin. I set up the paper and ran a trial copy on an ordinary white > sheet > so I could see how much space I needed to give for the message to be > centered from top to bottom . I could also roll the finished sheet into > the brailler and see with the optacon where my print name was so that I > could sign under it in braille. I like to do that because it usually > captures the donor's attention. > > One confession: I keep an old computer with DOS and WordPerfect 5.1 and > that was how I could so exactly predict the print. I don't think I could > do that in Word, though I am going to try it some day when I feel > adventurous. > > > At 08:43 PM 5/24/2006 -0400, > you wrote: > >>This is another unique use of the Optacon. We can compare one character to >>another. We can feel for ourselves the differences between capital and >>small letters. If we print two pages in teo different fonts, we can >>compare the readability of the print size-wise. We can decide that >>something might not scan because the print is so blurry or so very close >>together. We can actually feel the slant of italic print and determine for >>ourselves which words an letters are italicized. >>We can feel the length of a signature line to figure out how much space >>there is to write in. If there is a vertical line, we can decide if it's >>part of a picture or if it separates columns of text. If the line does not >>extend down the whole page we can figure out why. Is there a picture at >>the bottom? >>We can squeeze in between grid lines to read the informatin they contain. >>Some of these tasks are not easy but they do contribute to our >>independence and to our understanding of the realities of our world. >>Catherine >> >> >>------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>-Catherine Thomas >>braille@xxxxxxxxx / >> >>------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >>To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to: >> >>optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the >>quotes) in the message subject. >> >>Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message >>to: >> >>optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the >>quotes) in the message subject. >> >> >> >>-- >>No virus found in this incoming message. >>Checked by AVG Free Edition. >>Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.7.2/349 - Release Date: 5/26/2006 >> >> >> >> >>-- >>No virus found in this incoming message. >>Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. >>Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.7.2/349 - Release Date: 5/26/2006 > > > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.1.394 / Virus Database: 268.7.3/350 - Release Date: 5/28/2006 > > > > To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to: > > optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the > quotes) in the message subject. > > Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message > to: > > optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the > quotes) in the message subject. > To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to: optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the quotes) in the message subject. Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message to: optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) in the message subject.