I'm not speaking of technology advances. I'm speaking as a blind
community.
Where? have? we? gone? om? twenty? years?
answer:
no where.
braille embossers never dropped prices, note takers never dropped
prices and we still have the same computer troubles we had then.
its just odd, thats all.
BlindTech of BlindTechs.Net
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On Mar 17, 2006, at 4:49 AM, Tom McMahan wrote:
I think in a general sense we've come a long way in 20 years.
Twenty years ago, didn't have a computer at all. My brother had
one of those old Tandy machines. Remember those? And most people
I knew who were sighted had simmular products in their homes, if
they even had a computer. We also had an old T I 94 I think it was
with the plug in synthesiser, and the cassetplayer to store the
programs on. Could find the program by counting them as they
bliped through. The computer would speak back what you typed in
one of the programs, which could be intertaining, but that's about
it. Although that machine goes back to about 24 or 25 years ago.
Now have two machines here in my house. An old Windows box which
still can do what we need, and the Apple.
Now in the need for accessibility, I think we'll always be doing
that, because of our small numbers in the marketplace overall.
But were you burning your own music cds in 1986? Oh that's right,
we didn't have a cd player in our house then. Still used tape.
I was aware of the concept of the Internet back then, but for me it
was just a concept and that was it. Well, will send this now over
it. A lot faster than taping a letter to another blind person, or
having him or her suffer through my braille. Or me suffer with the
typwriter.Remember those?
Braille accessibility? Now verses then? Not to much different.
Can't afford the devices to read it so will listen via text. It
would be nice of course, but will obviously have to do without it
for now, and probably will be ok.
Also 1986, try sticking your vhs tape into the computer and
watching a movie. Can at least in general listen to a movie here
on the computer now if I wish.
Have to admite though I like the time travel discussion though. In
general there have been a lot of good things happen for us in 20
years.
On Mar 16, 2006, at 5:26 PM, Jacob Schmude wrote:
Hi
What exactly do you mean, where have we gone? Are you talking in
terms of braille translators or in general? If in general, I have
to say the use of a computer has come one hell of a long way from
that point in time for us blind users. BrailleEdit was before my
time, but I remember BeX and the Apple II quite well--both the
good and the bad.
First off, we can now access the majority of systems sighted
people do, and have been able to do so for quite a few years now.
Granted, not all mainstream systems are accessible but I'd go so
far as to say the majority are useable in one way or another. How
about the use of mainstream wordprocessors, rather than
specialized programs, or other mainstream programs? How about the
majority of compatibility issues between blind and sighted users'
documents being eliminated because of that? The access to multiple
operating systems--OS X, Windows, and Linux among them? The
ability for us to use a GUI? I'd say computer use for us has come
a very long way from that time. I remember how frustrating it was
on the Apple II, trying to make an application work with Textalker
and the Echo II when it wanted to use the same memory location as
Textalker did, resulting in an application modification--which
was, in most cases, illegal without express permission. I find
what we have now to be much better. Perfect? Of course not, and it
probably will never be. Nor are computers perfect for those who
are sighted. But to say or imply that we've come nowhere from the
days of the Apple II is, in my opinion, pure nonsense.
Just my $0.02
On Mar 16, 2006, at 2:44 PM, BlindTech of BlindTechs.Net wrote:
I am currently going over the old raised dot computing news
letters and wondering that one thing
Where have we gone iin twnety years as blind people and computers??
This news letter specifically wrote about a translator and editor
of braille and word processing on the apple 2. called braille edit.
and I'll be damned and say it sounds lie what we talk about today.
so then I ask,
where have we really gone in twenty years. except change
hardware, and os.
you can read for yourself at
http://personalpages.tds.net/~ti51/rdcnews.htm
Gabe Vega
BlindTech of BlindTechs.Net
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