Regarding ROP persons and spatial awareness, I suppose that there might be a
tiny "germ of truth" in the idea of reluctance to teach an ROP person who
does not have good spatial awareness, and I emphasize strongly the "tiny
germ of truth" here. But I'm not sure how much ROP has to do with it.
Consider this: Anyone who expects to do well with many kinds of reading
will need good spatial awareness at least in a two-dimensional framework.
One important piece of Optacon reading is good coordination between the
right hand as it moves the camera and the left finger reading the images as
that camera moves over them. Of course, borrowing from the way I think, all
that is managed through a "central computer" within the reader's brain
programmed through practice to link decoding and motor control to produce
intelligible reading or interpretation whether the subject material is text
or graphical, whether on straight lines across a page or in a
two-dimensional field under control of the reader's mind to follow an item
of interest wherever it leads on a page. I maintain that good Optacon users
have good spatial awareness and control either before they began Optacon
training or developed through diligent practice with the unit. The hours of
practice bring about the development of the kind of feedback between the two
hands to make for efficient Optacon reading of the different types of
material of interest. Whereas I might be interested in reading electronic
schematics, someone else might be interested in sewing patterns or other
decorations of no interest to me. But once a person acquires the basic
Optacon skills, that person can hone that skill out to the directions of
interest for that particular person. For my interest in electronics texts,
I had to buy a couple of small books from Radio Shack to learn the symbols
used in that type of texts.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Carolyn
Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2020 5:27 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Questions from a new R1C owner
Good, Peter. She needed to know that.
I have a friend in Texas, who was oxygen blinded, and she always has had a
very keen sense of direction and good travel skills.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of peter wilkins
Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2020 5:31 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Questions from a new R1C owner
Hello Carolyn and all.
I was trained for three weeks in London in 1982. One thing
I
remember is that I was mentally exhausted or something after the
training course was completed. For a few days I couldn't
remember phone numbers and things which were always easy to
remember before. However, after a while things came back
to me.
One other interesting point is that one of my trainers, Daphne Band, said
that she would never teach an oxygen blinded person to use the Optacon as
they have no spatial awareness or directional
sense, and would never master the Optacon. I don't know
how she
missed it, maybe because she did not look at my records as she was one of
two trainers, the other being Jo Lucke, pronounced
lucky. Years later, I was at a conference where Daphne
spoke
these comments, and when she finished I stood up and said that I was a
proficient Optacon user, who was oxygen blinded, and who was taught partly
by her.
Keep well.
Peter
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