Also, here is a collected list we composed last year.
-----Original Message-----
From: Carolyn Arnold
Sent: Sunday, March 6, 2016 8:33 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: What Out-Of-The_Ordinary Uses And In What
Countries?
I live in North Carolina, but lived most of my life in Texas.
I have used my Optacon for medical and pharmaceutical books; code books;
lining up a document for continuation or for making corrections in an IBM
Correcting Selectric typewriter (you talk about a lot of rolling, and if the
line I needed was near the bottom, I had to count and roll rolling up to
check; reading lists of physician names for spelling purposes; patient
lists; floor plans; all of my business when I lived alone including
statements and getting them lined in window envelopes, lease contracts,
deposit slips then figured how to type in the information in the right
place; and always proofing checks.
Bye for now,
Carolyn
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
On Behalf Of Kane Brolin
Sent: Saturday, March 5, 2016 9:35 PM
To: Optacon Users Mailing List <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [optacon-l] What Out-Of-The_Ordinary Uses And In What Countries?
The discussion thread today about how many years we've all been using
the Optacon is marvelous. But two questions I would like to ask of
you all:
(1) What countries do you all live in? I'm interested to hear today
that the Optacon made it to Great Britain, France, and Australia at
the very least.
(2) Aside from just reading loose printed pages or full-length
magazines or books, how else has the Optacon come in handy? For me, I
used it on the job while working for radio stations between 1987 and
1993. One of the stations for which I worked had reel-to-reel tape
decks that one could program to record things from a satellite feed
that we would need to trigger automatically to start at particular
times. Fortunately for me--being totally blind--the timer was one I
could adjust with vertically-configured dials that I could click up
and down, corresponding to hours, minutes, and seconds. And somehow,
I figured out how to position the Optacon's camera on those dials and
read the digital numbers that went with the positioning I had set. So
I could see for sure that a certain tape recording was set to click on
automatically at 15:59:00, as an example. In the same way, I was able
to read the numbers on an LCD that I needed to know in order to keep a
log of certain transmitter readings every hour. And I could identify
labels on boxes that contained reel-to-reel tapes or digital audio
tapes that contained programs I would have to air during my shift.
()Anybody remember DATs? They were pretty cool--just never caught on
in the consumer marketplace.) Anyway, these were essential functions
of my job that the Optacon helped me to do independently for quite a
while. I also used the device at times to read info from a CRT prior
to my ever being able to work with a screen-reading, text-to-speech or
Braille program. I still have today a CRT lens that I can snap onto
the end of the Optacon's cord so it would enable me to read text on
one of those big, old, convex computer screens that were used all the
time before the arrival of flat screens. This never worked well
following the widespread adoption of the graphical user interface such
as Windows. But I know I've used the Optacon before to track what was
going on with a troublesome computer reboot process, or in Safe Mode.
Still not possible, as far as I know, with a conventional
screen-reader such as JAWS.
Thank you for indulging my rant. I just love these memories.
Sometimes I have vivid dreams about doing that radio job, even though
it's more than 23 years in my past.
If I were to wake up and find myself back in 1991 in the same place
and time where I lived back then, I think I could step back into that
role and still perform it seamlessly, it left such an impression on my
consciousness.
-Kane
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To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to:
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