Hello All,
I never became a very proficient optacon user because I knew that the unit I
had was just on loan for the duration of high school. Once I returned the unit
to the government, I didn't give the optacon a second thought until I became a
programmer, and found that there were times I needed to read something which an
OCR program couldn't scan, or the document was some kind of flow chart.
Producing graphics with a Braille embosser is very time-consuming. There have
been a few times when I have wanted to print out some mainframe program output,
and then review it just like my sighted co-workers do. I would also find an
optacon useful in deciphering foreign language characters. This is especially
true now that the new UEB Braille code has confused foreign language symbol
representation. I used to know what Spanish letters with accent marks looked
like, but now I have forgotten and have know way of re-learning.
It is also sad that some people have been shut down by mailing list moderators
when they tried to discuss the future of the optacon. I think one thing our
list members might consider is getting sighted assistance in making videos to
put on YouTube. People could get the word out by posting videos to YouTube,
and then sharing them on Facebook and Twitter. It might even be possible to
create an optacon Facebook page or Twitter feed. There are already some videos
on YouTube about the optacon but I think they are rather dated. Videos are
things which sighted people pay attention to. Blind people also pay attention
to social media so this would be an important way to tell others about the
optacon.
Dan
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 26, 2016, at 12:01 PM, Fran <fran.italy@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I hardly use the Optacon anymore these days, but if I didn't own one I would
feel lost and so vulnerable...!
I absolutely don't trust OCRs as they cannot replace the human brain. They
work great with very clear writing, but if a letter is not legible, they
simply can't figure it out. Artificial intelligence has come along way, and I
love all of it! But nothing can replace my brain's ability to interpret.
Also, when I need to tackle a weird text produced by an OCR that didn't
perform well, I'm often able to supply the correct words, because knowing
what print looks like, I can often figure out what the OCR saw to yield that
incomprehensible string of letters :)
Fran
-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
Per conto di Maureen Hogg
Inviato: lunedì 26 settembre 2016 11:47
A: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oggetto: [optacon-l] Re: Optacon works where OCR fails
I'll second all of that, Anne! Thanks to the Optacon, I was able to puruse a
minor in French at university. That led to my first job as a technical
translator for an American company with interests in Algeria.
That same company later hired me to work in its aerospace division. The rest
is history. I pursued a highly successful career with Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp., which spanned 30 years and 15 awards. I only used a
refreshable braille display with MS products for the last seven years of that
career. It was the Optacon that gave me access to a DEC VT-100 using MASS
11, then on to Macs and PCs.
Did i say I was proficient with the Optacon?
Smiles!
Maureen
On 9/25/2016 2:02 AM, Anne Robertson wrote:
Hello,
I couldn’t imagine coping without my optacon. I first saw an optacon when I
was 21 years old and attending the RNIB secretarial college in London. My
roommate had an optacon and I was desperate to learn to use it.
She persuaded her optacon teacher to give me some lessons, and I took to it
like a duck to water.
However, I had to wait another six years to have an optacon allocated to me
for work. In the meantime, I had earned a degree in French and decided to be
a computer programmer. Back then, in Britain, programmers were given
optacons.
Since my optacon training had been informal, an optacon teacher was sent to
verify that I was able to use the device. It didn’t take long for me to
prove that no further training was necessary.
The optacon allowed me to work efficiently as a programer for the next 15
years, and as a translator after that.
These days, my iPhone has taken over many of the duties of the optacon, but
if I had to choose, I would take the optacon over any other technology.
Cheers,
Anne
