On 13 December 2015 at 13:46, Chuck Guzis <[email protected]> wrote: > At CDC Sunnyvale ops back in the 1970s, we had a blind programmer working. > His job output came as punched cards and he had no problem reading them by > feel. I remember him and his beautiful guide dog. > Hmm, that kinda makes sense. It would be kinda/sorta like braille. (I guess that would also work for punched tape as well.) I couldn't tell you how good it would be though, I might be vision impaired, but not enough that I've learnt braille. I wonder if any minis or mainframes (or micros) could actually produce output as braille...
> In the same sort of spirit, I recall that one of the secretaries used a > monitor-cum-camera affair to enlarge her work documents so that she could > read them. > CCTV readers. They're still a thing. The tests and exams centre at my university has a bunch of them (one each per exam room, and a bunch of old analogue ones still sitting about). I find the older analogue ones are better than the newer digital ones. If only because the text zoom is more "fluid" (my preferred size of "embiggened" (what, it's a perfectly cromulent word) text is right between two of the settings on the machines we have which is mildly annoying); they also have less artefacts when using non-standard video modes (reverse video, or high contrast modes). > It's sad that early corporate efforts to accommodate all people, no matter > the impairment, aren't better documented. > I'd buy a book on that in a heartbeat; necause that is very much of interest to myself. I know DEC had their DECtalk speech synthesizers (isn't the eminent Dr. Hawking's voice an old DECtalk?) and they could be connected to serial lines. Regards, Christian -- Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove STCKON08DS0 Contact information available upon request.
