Hi Mike, you have your fire-proof suit on? LOL. No need for it :-), although I kind of disagree with you...I don't think braille should have priority over the optacon at all. I'm probably an exception to the rule as I learned the optacon many years before I learned braille. I'm perfectly OK with it but I won't say this is necessarily the best choice for all blind children. However I know blind kids my age often learned the optacon and braille at the same time, and they were able to enjoy the advantages of both. Take care Fran ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij@xxxxxxxxx> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 6:24 PM Subject: Re: Survey including children needs > Fran: > > I may get flamed for this one, but ... > > > I think we should limit the survey to adults for the moment. I say this > for ideological reasons. While some children to extremely well with the > Optacon, school districts often found it all-too-easy to use the > availability of the Optacon as an excuse not to provide adequate braille > instruction to blind students. TeleSensory played into this abomination > by implying without saying it that the Optacon might make the need for > braille moot. I believe both organizations of the blind in this country > challenged this silliness and TeleSensory backed off. > > Whatever the history, there are only so many hours in a day and I > believe we cannot afford the luxury of pushing the Optacon as a useful > device for children unless and until we are assured that they are > getting good braille instruction. The two modalities complement each > other. > > <<FIRE-PROOF SUIT ON>> > > Mike Freeman > > On Sun, 30 Apr 2006, Francesca Diodati wrote: > >> Hi Catherine and all, >> I'm going to post the survey to a list I'm on, however I realized the >> questions seem to be directed specifically to blind adults, living >> independently, working etc. Since the list where I'm about to post also >> comprises many parents of blind children, I'm not sure if the survey is >> appropriate for them. I was about to add to the introduction that parents >> of >> blind children are welcome to reply to the applicable items only and >> provide >> any info on topics we haven't covered regarding the needs of their child. >> Is >> that OK or should we add items specifically for kids, or should we >> rewrite >> the existing items? >> >> Thanks for any feedback! >> >> Fran >> >> >> 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. > > > __________ Informazione NOD32 1.1515 (20060501) __________ > > Questo messaggio è stato controllato dal Sistema Antivirus NOD32 > http://www.nod32.it > > 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.