[optacon-l] Re: AW: Re: To All Subscribers Of This List
- From: "Nick Dotson" <nickdotson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2012 21:27:02 -0600
You're wrong on all of those contentions. They just weren't as widely
available.
Ray Kurzweil's first Reading machine came out in 1976 or '78, I and about
100 other blind people were using talking and braille output General Purpose
personal Micro Computers in 1982. Before that some of us were using Total
Talk speech Output Terminals, and Triformation Systems braille output
terminals which embossed on paper tape 1970, then on paper with the advent
of the L.E.D.-120 in 1974.
It was a time of high drama, passion and adventure. My mentors taught me
that there was no single device that was a panacea, they were all just
weapons for freedom and independence in my personal arsenal and those of
other blind person's armories...
Nick
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Fran
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 3:01 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: AW: Re: To All Subscribers Of This List
Yes it's sad, especially considering that the blind community gave up the
optacon at a time when computers, scanners and downloadable audiobooks
weren't yet available. If the optacon is so important today, with all this
wonderful technology, in the past its contribution to our freedom was
priceless. Those of us who were tough enough - LOL - were really blessed.
I can't help feeling a bit angry at the blind community sometimes, because
if their attitude had been different, we certainly wouldn't be so scared to
death that our machine may die on us, and we would be using sci-fi optacons,
that could be operated with one hand, make less noise, have much higher
contrast, and so much more...
Fran
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