RE: Some comments on the Optacon
- From: "Pam Drake" <pamdrake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 00:56:03 -0700
Bob,
You remind me of one afternoon when I returned to my desk from lunch and
found a note on my desk. I figured it was handwritten but decided to try
it.
As I moved the camera along the print I read, "Grimes...hosp...hours...
I shot up from my desk and practically ran to the supervisor's desk, sure of
what the message was telling me.
Indeed, my friend whose last name was Grimes was in the hospital and was
expected to be there for at least 48 hours.
Although I couldn't read the full message, just those few abbreviated words
told me this was something that needed immediate attention. Not only was I
able to call her and found she had slipped on an icy sidewalk that morning
and had gone to the hospital on an emergency basis, but I was able to go to
the drugstore on my way home from work, pick up a toothbrush and a couple of
items she needed, and take them to her. Without the Optacon I might have
just tucked the note somewhere and waited for help, provided of course I
hadn't forgotten the note by the time I found someone to read it.
Of course there are times when speed is important and it's faster and easier
to ask a sighted person, but when there's no one around, which is often if
not usually the case, I find the Optacon is usually the quickest and most
reliable way to do what needs to be done.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Robert Feinstein
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 11:31 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Some comments on the Optacon
I am probably one of the least skilled Optacon users on this list, judging
from what I have read. I am bob in NY. However, despite this, the Optacon
is a tremendous help to me in many ways: identifying mail, seeing if my
printer is working, checking an envelope I address, etc. I recently
received some medication (I take a great deal now) and I needed to know what
was in each vile. I took the optacon, and tried to read the name of the
medication. I could find words like "do not" or "take this" but not the
name. After working at it for about an hour and a half (nobody has more
patience than Optacon users) I found the name of the medication, written in
the middle of the vile, to the right. I took a mental note of where the
name was, and found it to be uniform with each vile. I was able to read the
name in about 3 minutes as opposed to an hour and a half. Now the question:
is it worth struggling for over an hour to read the name of a medication
when a sighted person could have done so in a second? In the scheme of
things, I'm not sure, but I had no sighted assistance, and I wanted to
braille my medication viles. The next time I receive these viles, the task
will be infinitely easier.
But to read books, long letters, bank statements, that, sadly, would not be
possible for me because of the effort and time. Still, I'm glad I have the
Optacon. I wanted to share this because I believe the Optacon can be well
worth the investment, even if one is not very fast with it.
Bob
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