Category: Let's talk
Hello to all. I think this will be interesting. Each generation of blind or visually impaired had their struggles growing up. Here is some stuff I went through growing up. I hope it makes you realize just how good things are now. When I was growing up and a teenager, there were no iPhones or anything like that. There was no nvda either. I started off on apple 2e's when I was 1 or so. Then when I was 15 my parents got a dell dimension 4600 and i had to use narrator for a year or so. I had a jaws demo but I did not like having to restart my parent's computer every 40 minutes. Then in 2004 I got my own dell dimension 2400 and my own copy of jaws 5.0. My first "accessible" phone was a LG vx4500. It could read the time, signal strength, some menus and the caller id. Then I got a nokia 9300 in 2006. I paid over 1000 dollars to get the phone working. 300 for the phone, 300 for talks and 500 on an at&t deposit because I had no credit. So if you guys from a later generation think you have it bad, it could have been worse. Again, I'm not complaining or anything. I'm glad for what I went through. It makes me appreciate the technology of today a lot more. I bet a lot of you younger people got a laptop at a younger age and you had an iPhone as well.
Think about blind students before there was any technology. Think about high school and college students who had to find volunteers to read their books to them either on tape or in person. Before computers and cell phones it was a lot harder, but people managed to get through it.
Sure. If you don't have it, you don't.
But, you can live just fine with the things that were available.
Ok, the technology I grew up on. This will be fun. Since I'm probably one of the oldest Zoners, a couple years shy of 40, I'll take yall on a trip way down memory lane.
So, before they realized just how blind I really was, my teachers insisted that I try to use a magnifier. Of courst that left a shadow on the books so they got a goose neck lamp and an easle. Honestly, an xray has shown that my neck bones are malformed from spending so much time as a young child with my head bent way down trying to read and write. I also had one of the old school CCTV's. It took up an entire table so my desk was rarely with my peers.
Finally, they figured out that I was blind enough to require braille. Awesome for my education but not so much for my body. lol If you've ever seen a Perkins brailler, imagine carrying one of those from class to class in middle school or high school. I thought the bruises would never fade from that thing banging into my leg as I carried it around. C'mon, fellow Oldsters, I know yall hear me on that one.
Then there were of course the heavy hard-cover braille books, one or two for each class. I learned to type on a manual type writer in the 3rd grade; my hands weren't even big enough to correctly fit on the home row. lol
I worked on my first talking computer, an Apple II E in the 5th grade in 1987 and thought that was the most amazing thing ever. In high school, I switched to the Keynote gold. I used Vocal Eyes with Dos until starting work in 1998 when I made the switch to Windows and Jaws. I was uber lucky that my Grandfather purchased me a Kurtzweil Reading Edge in the mid-90's. It cost about $5000 then and now K couldn't give it away. lol It wasn't perfect so I still had to hire readers but it made things allot easier.
I got my first accessible phone in 2005. It was a Nokia something or other and had Talks.
It is truly amazing how far technology has come over the past several years. On behalf of visually impaired kids of today, I am greatful for that. I am also greatful that I grew up when I did. At least I didn't have to go through school on a slate and stylus. Although, I do have an acquaintance who can write like a madwoman on that thing and it's pretty cool to watch.
This was a fun topic.
I have carried a Perkins brailler on my back in a back pack all throughout middle school. :) You could always depend on your braille writer for sure.
To becky's post, majority of blind people in this world, still have no access to all the stuff we have access in the develop world. Some people don't know how to read or write, neve been to school. The blindness population in developed and developing country is just afraction of the whole blindness population in the world
Wow, is this gunna be fun! Though I’m warning you all, I’m probably dating myself big-time here. See, back in 1971, when I hadn’t yet turned seven, I started learning Braille. I was the only blind student in my school district, and that was true all the way up till I graduated in ’83. But I started out with this thing my father called a Braille cell. He invented it himself. He was a tool-and-dye maker, and so he simply got the concept of drilling six holes into a smallish metal rectangular block. Then he fashioned six metal pegs to put into those holes that you could easily remove. If you put only one dot in the upper left, it was the letter A, and so on. I still have it to this day; it sits on my dresser at home. I even have all six pegs to this day. As far as I know, it’s the only one of its kind in the world. I ought to show it to more people. Anyway, when I went from that Braille cell to regular Braille that you read in books or on Braille displays today, it was like going from large to small print. I started to write Braille with the Perkins, which in my opinion used to be made a lot better than they are nowadays, but I was still only six. This local blind guy in the area taught me how to use it, and there were many summer days in 1971 when I spent an hour or two just practicing on that Perkins. So, when I got into first grade, I started with the Braille books. And my Perkins. Always had that from first grade to senior high and beyond. I learned to type on a manual typewriter when I was nine, and then started using an electric one when I was ten. And does anyone here remember the Optacon? That thing was supposed to replace Braille. I first saw one of them in the spring of ’78 when I was all of thirteen. Used to be worth about 3 grand. In 1994, I sold it for $150, and that was probably a bargain. It never replaced Braille, and in my mind it was one of the most annoying inventions of its kind. I didn’t really start using the slate and stylus till I was about fourteen, and I honestly never really liked it all that much. You go from a Perkie to the equivalent of chiseling your letters and numbers on stone, you never really get the concept. But I always had my fingers in a book. And of course, there were all the ways you could read. Back in the day, I mostly read Braille. I still miss it a lot because I don’t do a lot of Braille reading these days with my Victor and NLS player. But I think it’s high time I got a Braille display. Still, if I didn’t have a Braille book in my hand, I was listening to tapes or records. Remember those? They went from hard-disc to flexible disc. Flexible discs were better than hard ones because there wasn’t as much bulk, and I guess they didn’t scratch as easily. Then tapes were better because they were cheaper, so all the magazines switched over to tape entirely, and that was back in 2000! Then, just a few years ago, they started going wild with the invention of the Victor, Book Sense and the NLS players, so no more tapes, I guess. Now, you can get an ap and download books on your Iphone, but I haven’t figured that out quite yet.
I used to do a lot of history papers when I was in high school with only my Optacon, sometimes taped or Braille books, and a combination of my Perkins and my manual typewriter (later an electric, which I didn’t get until the end of my senior year.) And does anyone remember the VersaBraille from Telesensory? Got one of those in the winter of ’85. It was a cassette-drive model, and back then it was the height of tech. I saw my first computer in the summer of ’86 when I was 21, and got my IBM in ’87, just before graduating college. Then there were hard-drives and those big floppy discs which were so delicate you couldn’t touch them without getting worried you’d corrupted them. And I don’t wanna get everyone all hot and bothered here, but gues how many megs my first hard-drive was? Forty! Ooh, baby! Fast-forwarding a bit, I didn’t even see the Internet until ’94. My first laptop ran with VocalEyes and DOS 6.0 or something, which in about 1997 was the latest and greatest in tech. And I had one scanner at my job and one scanner at home. One computer at the office and one at home. I was always working because I was always scanning printed material. Suffice it to say I will never, ever do that again! By the time I left my job in New York to go elsewhere, it was 2005, and I had a brand-new Dell with a 30-gig hard drive and who knows how many ram of memory. 60 gig used to be astronomical, and now my latest computer has 700 gig. And again, I don’t even know how much ram it has. My little Iphone 6 plus has 128 gig of space, or ram, or whatever, and it’s basically a palm-sized computer. Still learning how to use it. But overall, I can’t wait for the next fifty years!
I was born in 82, so I remember them days of card catalogues, having to search volumes of braille dictionaries for definitions, carrying a brailler from class to class, and the fucking abacus. I hated that thing. Eventually I started doing all my math on my braille lite, which had a calculator, unbeknownst to my teacher.
Oh and the Apple 2-E and echo speech synth, which I actually kind of miss. I know there's an emulator out there, but I could never figure it out.
So I am in my 60s and carried a perkins brailler around in school. Had those hard records on 33 and a third for talking books. In medical transcription work, I started out with a proofreader went to another hospital job then finally in 1983, got my first talking computer. Very expensive for rehab to buy for me so the hospital thought it would be worth investing in my job so helped pay some too for the equipment. Books for school in high school were on reel to reel tapes. Technology has come a long way. Braille books were very bulky.
Sorry to break it to all you old people, but things didn't really progress as
fast as you'd like to think. Braillers? I was still using those in the early 200s.
I still used braille dictionaries until I graduated from high school in 2007. I
had a franklin dictionary, but the vocabulary for that thing was laughably
small. I preferred slogging through sixty-seven volumes to find a single
word. I didn't get my first accessible computer until I was a junior in high
school, and it had window eyes on it. I still hate window eyes to this day. I
didn't get my first accessible cell phone until after graduating, and even then
it was awful. So, though I admit things were worse in the 70s and 80s.
Things weren't really any better in the 90s and 2000s.
Hell, if you really think about it, are things that much better now? Sure, the
iphone is fantastic, and the accessibility of macs is amazing, but jaws is still
awful and getting more awful by the update. Voice synthesizers, though the
technology exists to make them almost identical to human voices, still sound
like drugged out robots most of the time. Note takers are still running on
operating systems that are less powerful than most cell phones, and have
less memory than the basic iphone. Yet, they're comparatively huge, and
astronomically expensive.
Hell, I remember seeing an advertisement for a new note taker that listed
one of its selling points as a replaceable battery. This was last year. A
replaceable battery was a selling point for radios in the fifties, not note
takers in the 21st century. yet they keep feeding that crap to us like we're
supposed to be grateful.
So yes, while schooling sucked for us as kids, don't think its actually
changed all that much just because apple decided to not be a dick to the
blind community.
Cody's right, and I am part of the old farts category I guess. It's true though: I hear now that people in the 80s had access to technology I never saw. I did the Braille writer / typewriter thing through college, only in college started using Vert on a school computer partway through. But growing up, we just never thought about it. I had little contact with other blind people, part of the early stages of desegregation -- what the more PC types call 'mainstream'. Day to day struggles is enough for many people, so especially before the Internet, it was harder to learn about things, and far more difficult to pay for them.
Also, $1000 for a piece of tech was a shit ton more in the 1980s than it is now.
Anyway, Cody's right: just because the technology exists doesn't mean people, even people in developed nations, have the money to access it. I was one in ten kids, smack dab in the middle in fact.
So buying that sort of thing was out of the question for the parents, and asking for such a thing was inconceivable to one of us kids, and knowing about it was a lot more unlikely without the Internet. I didn't have the records, only was allowed use of the tapes as a last resort, because the thought was if you did tapes, you would become illiterate. Same arguments you see today RE: use of computers. Personally I think they may have had a point, but access to information is more important than how that information comes to you. Obviously preferable to be able to read it. But better to access it somehow than not at all. I know, just stirred up the ideologues' hornet's nest with that one. But I'm speaking as someone who was before the internet, and once we got access to online sources -- for me around 96 or so, -- the world changed for me, to proportions only described by people who lived around the time of the Printing Press.
But just like people living at the time of the Printing Press's invention, tons of people get left out, just because the new technology is available. I think economic status has a lot more to do with things than race, gender, disability, etc. And people of a higher economic strata by definition have access to more. I could get things that some kids living on the government in my school couldn't, and there were a whole host of things that rich, or even upper middle class, kids got access to that I never saw myself getting in those days.
And that economic differentiation remains, although all technologies, even for us blind people, have gone down in price. You have to understand per capita and pricing relative to the economy of the times to know what I'm saying. $2000 plus for a Braille display in 1987 was a hell of a lot more money than $2000 for a display now. My first jobs I earned minimum wage at $3.35 per hour, just as a point of reference. That's why I can't get behind the price complaints leveled at any of these companies now, even for things I still can't afford. Just cause I personally can't buy one doesn't mean it's not unfairly priced. The prices were way way steeper in 1980s dollars than they are now.
Anyway, I'm one of those contrarians who thinks economic ability to pay is a far more stratifying divider than is disability, race, gender, orientation, etc. And it seems I think more and more this way the older I get, and the more I observe with people on the up, on the down, and in between.
I will say that you guys have valid points. Back in '97, when I upgraded my entire computer set-up at home so I could supposedly keep up at my job, I borrowed from my retirement fund to pay for it all. Scanners, computers, voice synthesizer cards, back then they cost thousands of dollars. This is an objective observation, not me bitching, but my sighted peers had no clue how much money had, and in some instances still has, to be paid out to be on the same level with them. I have my Mac now and I didn't pay any more than a sighted person would, but if I went totally Windows-based, without ever having had a screenreader in the first instance, the computer would end up costing extra because Microsoft doesn't come with a built-in screenreader that can come anywhere close to WindowEyes or Jaws. And I wonder why Zoom Text has a voice synthesizer that sounds better than Jaws.
I had very little access to the internet until after I graduated high school in 2004. During my senior year I would maybe get half an hour/day to use it at school for research or games, but that's it. At home my parents (including my blind father) had internet, but I didn't. I have no idea why this was and have never asked. When I got my own computer and internet connection (in about 2006) and realized I could ask it questions on just about any subject imaginable...that changed everything.
I must have been the last person in my age group to figure it out.
Where I grew up I had a wonderful resource service.
I didn't have to carry a braille writer around, because inside the school we had what is called a resourve room. This room had everything we needed.
We had 2 classes per day to teach us how to use things related to the blind, and mobility.
This went on thuntil high school.
The things I'd carry were an abacus, a slate, some braille paper, and always a cassette recorder. The cassette recorder doubled as my iPod. Lol
In college, I recorder the classes, and if I needed to take a note, used a slate.
I was comshiner of disabled sudent services there as my job, so had all the tech companies come out and show me all the hot items. Still didn't use them though.
I didn't start using a computer until about 93, and only for work. I didn't get a personal computer at home until about 2005 or 6.
My first accessible phone was the En V2 in 2007, because I was dating a blind lady that got one, so got jealous and was telling my mom and sister about them.
They gave me one the next day. Lol
I didn't get an iPhone until the 4S model, and that after about a year it was available.
I never had any of the fancy things, still don't. I read in braille mostly.
Still use my slate too.
You gotta admit though, it's a hell of a lot easier now that we've got portable devices that can store print and audio books than it was in the days of bulky braille volumes and tapes that got eaten by the machines. Only problem is, there seem to be a lot of typos in eBooks, but hopefully scanning tech gets better.
Oh, that part is amazing. I carry around about a thousand books with me everywhere I go during my work week. Couldn't have done that even ten years ago.
I think that's one of the things that is fascinating to me. The quantity of data we can carry in our pockets is really more than I could ever take in in an entire lifetime.
Here's another blast of tech from the past. Did any of yall ever use a Braille-and-print? Basically, you replaced the bottom of your brailler with a bottom that had holes. This flat rectangular device had springy buttons that fit into the holes. When you wrote something braille, it would take in the info and print it via a printer attached to the serial port.
I had one in elementary school in home room. There were some braille translation issues but overall it was nice.
I saw one of those brail and print jobbies years ago, and I deffinitly remember the apple2e running the echo and textalker 1.3. Such was life before harddrives. My first machine with a harddrive was a bulky toshiba laptop from 1991 running artic vision as the screen reader and word perfect 5.1. Now that was terrible installing it, because wp was on ten diskettes. My first desktop with a harddrive was a pentium 166, and that didn't last long as the one gig drive that came with it was bad.
Would be kinda cool to have a modern desktop machine with everything but the monitor in one case, made to look like the old apple.
I had some vision, growing up in the 80s, so I did not use speech until the early 90s. I
remember having books in large print, which were massive and heavy to carry around,
and things recorded on either 8 track or cassette. Now, that's dating myself. :)
Of course magnifiers were available, but when I got to university in the early 90s the
volume of reading was too much. Again, readers were hired to record on cassette, and I
slowly began using the first versions of speech with Windows 3.1 or even under DOS.
However, not having learned braille I had to take my own notes in print, or once I hit
university, was able to have a laptop that was the slowest and dumbest piece of junk I
had ever seen, running DOS and Win 3.1, using WordPerfect.
Things have come a long way from the first Commodore 64 that I used, to the Apple IIe
without speech, to finally making the transition to speech in the 90s. Had I had access to
more knowledge and funding, I may have been an earlier adopter of speech, but alas I
struggled for years without that luxury.
It has been a long road, but I sure am happy to now be using a braille display and
VoiceOver to access a world of information that was tedious to access way back when.
Books on eight track tapes? Weird. What did the Commodore look like physically?
The Keynote was a fascinating machine for its time. I got one when I was in law school, first year, toward the end of 1st semester. Pretty good speech synthesizer, but an 8088 or 8086 processor. Translation: Slow as frozen snot in January. In Siberia. You could run its own operating system, which I did most of the time, but you could also run it on DOS. Trouble was it didn't have much of a hard drive at all, and the only thing in DOS it was good for was going online to those primitive BBS systems they had back then all over the country, or playing Zork or some other old text game. Took forever to open up a file if it was big enough, and I dunno how many files I ended up losing over the years because the damned thing just arbitrarily decided to crash from time to time. I still used it at my old job for a while, which was a complete nightmare, because you had to break out of one file, open up another file, and then go back into the file you were writing. Very, very primitive, annoying as hell, and it seemed to me all I ever did was work. Don't know if they stil make Keynotes anymore. Wonder what they're gunna do with the Victor, by the way, since it seems the SD cards are now becoming a thing of the past.
Just about everything has really came a long way. Heck phones were hard wired to the wall and just made phone calls. The one thing I just can’t figure out is why I can’t find a calculator that comes even close to the old Sharp calculator I have. The darn thing runs forever on AA batteries speaks all functions. Has a calendar, clock, timer, alarm, and is a really nice and simple calculator. I haven’t seen one that even comes close to as functional, and this thing is from the 80’s.
Surely you could get these things on a smartphone?
Oh I loved the Sharp calculator. I also liked the Qubert clock. I didn't have one but a roommate at camp did.
Someone earlier mentioned an abacus. Would yall believe that I just downloaded a book to relearn how to do long division and multiplication on the abacus? I need to be able to work with my son sometimes and hate always using a calculator. It doesn't set a very good example. lol Now I've just got to find an abacus.
I'd rather eat my own toenail clippings than use an abby again.
Is it true you can read restaurant menus and your mail with a smart phone that has a scanner feature? It certainly was nice to be able to read my mail with a scanner with the computer; got sick of people in a hurry saying no you don't really want to know about that catalog I have here. Yes I did. Ordered foods from some that made my family very happy.
The abacus is a wonderful tool. It's small, doesn't require batteries, and you can figure out any problem on it quickly.
I sometimes wonder why schools allow caculators in math classes A person needs to learn how to figure in there head, then on paper, then with a tool, but not the tool first.
If you run out of batteries, your dumb. Lol
Bea, it isn't that you read the menu, you can, but that take forever, but you have an app that you can look up the place you are at if they are on there.
Also, the GPS or location services will load it for you soon as you get in the door.
Kind of neat.
I always just look them up online before I get there as well, if they have one.
Imprecator you surely can get them on a smartphone. That doesn't mean they are as easy or quick to use as a good old calculator.The Sharp calc. just works very well for what it is. And there is nothing I've found that even comes close to it, smart phones included.
Bea, yes you can. KNFB Reader. I read a lot with that these days.
I have meant to get an abacus and learn it. Ironically when I was in school, and in part due to my parents, the whole comept of using an abacus was seen as too easy. I actually got in trouble for using it, as though I had been the one to instigate its use and not the school itself. This was in first grade. So aside from basic adding and subtracting I don't know how to do anything on it. There are books apparently, and I've considered buying one if I could. The tiny one I remember had plastic beads but they didn't slide so fast like the big ones you see.
I knew a blind guy who would put a phone number on his to just save it till he could write it down.
I still use the slate from time to time, used it all the time as a kid, although never developed the kind of speed the dogmatics mythologized about, claiming you could do it as quickly as typing, sounds like a physics challenge since you have multiple strokes per character with the slate and a single stroke with a typewriter.
So yesterday you were seen as being lazy by using an abacus, while today it's for using a calculator. Guess dogmatics gotta dog though.
I was born in 90 and had partial sight up until 2001. The first adaptive tech I got was a bright lamp. I had to lean over to see my paper, and my hair would fall down, blocking out the light from the window.
As I advanced, I got large print books and a CCTV as well. Sure was cool looking at stuff under the magnification. I always liked writing under it, since my handwriting got magically neater and beautiful. I got a colored one later on, and I would amuse myself in class by flicking through the colors. Very huge machine, separate table, and they had to face the screen away from the class so the other students couldn't copy off me. Ahh, the memory of watching them wheel my CCTV on a big cart from class to class in sixth grade.
I also tried those handheld magnifiers, but that little square inch of space doesn't allow you to read much. I also got my earring caught in it, being a bored nine year old girl.
Oh, they gave me this lined paper with thick, bold dark lines so I could see to write without the CCTV. I remember being shown the maxiport and Jordiport, and some other port I can't recall right now. Talk about hot tech in the late 90's. My parent's were poor, and we lived in a small town. I'm frankly surprised they even had someone to teach me braille. Starting from age five, even though I had decent partial vision, they made me start learning braille. One of the few good calls made on my behalf.
There was the never ending steady stream of bright green 4-track cassette boxes from the Library for the Blind sending me books to play on that chunky player. Read the book, flip the card, mail it back. Feh, now I just create a wishlist and download it all on my phone.
When I lost the rest of my vision in 01, I started out the second half of sixth grade on a Braille'n Speak scholar. I used that bad boy up until 11th grade, from 2001 to 2006. Consequently, when I got my Pacmate, I kept destroying keys because I was typing way too hard. Switching to the pocket Windows, I thought the Pacmate was amazing. Back in middle school with the Braille'n Speak Scholar, I remember my braillest telling me to type more quietly in class. Bitch please. I'm typing in braille on a chunky plastic keyboard.
Braille labels, early versions of JAWS, puff paint, graph paper, a TI34 calculator that was shit. I remember the struggle to find some kind of accessible graphing calculator for algebra, precalc, and AP stats. We wound up going with the expediant sulution of me bossing around my braillist on what buttons to press on her TI83. I got my first school owned laptop in 04 and fast mastered the art of getting in trouble on the internet.
Briefly in later middle school, they had me try and carry a Perkins from class to class. I think they got tired of the loud crunching of my typing. The thing would always ding when I walked. I remember shelves and shelves of braille books in high school, and my braillist playing librarian to pick out which volume I'd need for class that day.
I was so backwards, I made the dumb decision to ask DVR for a desktop computer and a Braillenote to use for classes when I first started college.
The tech we have now is incredible to me. My first accessible phone was an N75 with Mobile Speak my Freshman year of college in 08. Now, I can order pizza to my house, scan money, and read mail with my iPhone. Sure, you get by with what you have. In fact, having less teaches you more, makes you rely more on your own resourcefulness. I don't bother to fold an organize my money, because A, I rarely use cash, and B, there's an app for that. I think there's something sad lost in the self-reliance of the past. But damned if life isn't a whole lot easier now.
It's amusing sometimes to show the smarter teachers a thing or two. I say that in a good way, BTW. In ninth grade I took Spanish, and I had about a 20-volume Spanish-to-English dictionary. It was all in paperback. Anyway, sometimes a kid would ask the teacher, "What's the word for (insert English or Spanish word?") The teacher would say: "I dunno, I don't have a dictionary." A couple of times I brought my entire dictionary to class. Teacher was good about it; he said for me to just ask him because the dictionary was just too big to carry around. He had a clue.
Oh geez, huge braille books taking up multiple volumes. That is one aspect I sincerely don't miss about braille, and one of the reasons I won't touch a novel brailled on paper. Trying to figure out which volume you'd need on a given day was not a fun experience.
I do recall the abacus; found myself thinking about it the other day in fact. I really liked it and sometimes wish I still had one. I think being able to do math with one's brain rather than a computer is a very valuable skill, if for no other reason than to keep the brain sharp. I'm embarrased to admit I barely remember how to do long division, having not needed in in many years.
I was born in 1982. I used a perkins brailler all the way from grade 2 to 12. I had a braille 'n Speak, then a braille lite 40 intermittently. I broke the BNS in grade 8 (playing around in settings I shouldn't have) and had to use the perkins exclusively until grade 10 when they figured I'd learned my lesson. Didn't get my first computer until grade 12. it opened up amazing possibilities to me. The internet, napster, word processing! It was amazing!. I had to teach myself to type, and to begin with I could barely type three a minute. These days I'm up to 60 or so. These days I work exclusively with a PC, JAWS Zoomtext and, when it actually works properly, NVDA. I still read braille from time to time with my display, but I'm not sure I'd be very fast at writing it. I don't use my Iphone as much as some of you do, but mostly due to ignorance.
I use my iPhone for the obvious phone calls, texting, and as a wake up alarm. That's about it really.
From my understanding, maybe its different in the states, but there are only some specific calculator that you allow to bring to math class. usually these are the scientific calculator, not the ordinary calculator...
I understand the thing about doing math in your head, I was just never good at it. Never even got to basic algebra, I was still doing fractions in my senior year at blindy school.
The difference, in my opinion to using an abacus, and a calculator, is the abacus, makes you understand how you are solving the problem.
These caculators, or some I've seen students allowed to use, are plug and play.
(6 times sign, 24, = bam, answer.) Lol
Oh I can't be bothered to stop using some of the old ways, like folding me money and
scratching out a label with the slate and stylus.
There are some books I wish I had in Braille, but then I'd need a manor estate with a pet
raven just to store it all. I'm not asking Her, but betting She says 'no' to the pet raven
though.
So, I stumbled upon this topic while searching for something else and decided to read the rest of it. Thanks, Leo, for reminding me that I need to order braille labels. lol Barcode scanners and KNFB reader are awesome tools to have in my box but nothing is more efficient (once it's been done) than good old braille labels for quickly picking stuff out of the pantry.
I'm gonna get some of that plasticky braille-on stuff so I can make bigger labels in the perkins.
I remember nintendo not super, just regular old nintendo with those cartrages that messed up in the middle of your game. You just about threw a fit because there was no way to save your progress. Cody mentioned those old radios. Remember the little portable ones? Then there were the huge boomboxes that you had to use d batteries for, the walkman, cds and cd players. Remember the one with a cd changer? If you really loved music you probably had a cd case or stand. Then of course came portable cd players that skipped horribly. What about Huge tvs with the booty and rabbit ears antenna? Once when I was little I poked holes in the tv speaker and busted it lol. Didn't you love the way it would either jump or get fuzzy and sound was crackly so somebody had to stand next to it to make it stop? By the way, to play your game system or watch a video cassette on your vcr you had to put it on channel 3, and any channel that wasn't broadcasting anything had that greyish black and white screen and constant white noise. I wonder if anyone still has those old ass casio keyboards that sound so fake now. I remember corded landline phones which I use to chew up. Don't know why. I use to buy the extention cords from the 99 cent store to get it into my room or at least somewhere private I could talk. We had a few cordless phones too. Not in time? Press star six nine, or star 66, the busy signal fix. Oh and you had to pay extra for voicemail and long distance or buy a phone card if you had relatives overseas. I think all the accessible tech has already been mentioned. I'll just say this. At first I never used my nls tape player for its intended purpose. My friends and I just took them to school and played music on them. Those things broke so easily. The first thing to go was always the door. I could go on and on...cam corders, photo cameras that blasted you with a flash of light, microwaves with nobs, virtual pets, talking caller id you had to buy, oh you had to pay extra for call waiting too, and some people as has been said still use a lot of this stuff. I mean, just the other day a friend of mine told me she still has night and weekend minutes. There use to be no such thing as unlimited talk or text every minute you spent talking, every text you sent was precious. Speaking of talking...chatting and the internet, I just have to say one thing. Welcome. you've got mail! The first time I ever chat to anyone with IM was with aol. yes I had dial up. Who remembers freedom chat? I was on there under a couple different names. That was where I was introduced to msn, outlook express, winMX, ventrillo, team talk and yes even the zone. Well we've move on to easier/lazier ways of doing things. I wonder what's to come? This topic inspired an idea. How bout one entitled, toys and games we grew up with?
Your post reminded me of something funny that happened the other day. On vacation, we ate at Buhbuh' Gump's place so of course I decided that my 11-year-old son had to see the movie Forest Gump when we got home. I couldn't find it on Netflix, iTunes, or Amazon Instant video. I haven't yet purchased it on DVD so out came the VCR and VHS copy I've had since it came out in the late 90's. lol I popped the tape in, which of course had to be rewound. Then, we had to skip through the previews. My son then said, "Oh my gosh! They call these Coming Attractions! This is soooo old timy!"
I was like, "Kid, you have no idea." lol
I had one of thos casio keyboards. REally goofy 80's drum sounds. I kinda miss the guitar and bass sounds though.
Wow! Toys. I’ll bite on that one even though it’s not technology per se. My favorite riding toy as a young kid was the crazy car. I think it was supposed to be the answer to the bigwheel, which I also loved even though I only rode other kids’ because I didn’t have one. Anyway, if anybody remembers them, it was a very late-60s/early-70s thing. It was as low to the ground as a bigwheel, but instead of foot pedals, you had hand pedals attached to two large wheels on either side of the car. In order to move forward, you had to turn them at the same time. If you turned only one of them, you could spin around in it. Apparently I was the only kid around who knew how to use it because when other kids tried it, they didn’t quite know what to do with the hand cranks. But one of the things I used to love to do with it was to ride as far as one of my neighbors’ driveways, spin around and ride down the street really fast. Just before I got to our driveway, I’d let go of the handles and let the car spin out of control until I either turned into the street or crashed into another neighbor’s fence. What can I say? I was a bit of a little terrorist as a child.
I had a bigwheel, a tricycle, pogo stick, trampoline, a couple of those see and say things, and lots of tape recorders. I went through tape recorders like aknife through butter, cuz I was always fucking with the speed and pitch and all that to make crazy noises.
I was born in 1983 and have been blind since I was two-months-old. The first technology for the blind that I ever used was a Perkins braillewriter, at about six-years-old. One of the greatest inventions to be paired with it was a Braille N Print. This allowed me to braille normally, while sending each line to a regular printer. I would love to find one of these devices again, particularly the slim version. I used this for everything until middle school or so, when I received a Braille Lite 2000. Then, I received my Language Master, which I still possess, along with most of the technology mentioned here. I played with it for hours at a time, , exploring the dictionary, playing games, and learning from the grammar guide and thesaurus. I had a modern typewriter in school, but I only used it a few times. I preferred my manual one from 1908, and my electric one from the 1970s, as they had real inside keys.
The first computer I ever saw was the Apple IIE that everyone used in school. I played with my Dr. Pete's Talking Writer disk, especially the game Space Invaders. All speech came from an Echo synthesizer. The other students played things like Number Munchers. But I was able to play Oregon Trail and Lemon aid Stand with an aid who would read the screen to me as I made choices. Eventually, my family bought an Apple IIC at a flee market. Even then, it was old, and Mom just liked to play with the clicky keyboard. The disk drive and keyboard were all in one unit, and it had no hard drive! Then, we got a Tandy 1000. When I asked the New Jersey Commission for the Blind if I could use it, they said no. Years later, I learned that was a lie. But I liked playing games like Treasure Mountain, Sleuth, and Casino with my family.
It was around 1994 or so that a dear friend of the family died, and I inherited her computer, though it took me some time to receive it. I had vaguely heard of DOS because I knew that's what was in the Tandy, and was fascinated by it because it was old. The computer itself was so large that it had to be placed on the floor. It had a 386 processor,, a 5.25 and a 3.5 inch floppy drive, and was loaded with MSDOS 5.0 and WordPerfect 5.1. Yet again, I asked the Commission for help, but they refused. Still, they gave me a copy of VocalEyes and some cables for my Braille Lite 2000, which I used as a synthesizer. Luckily, I was able to get a series, called DOS for Dummies, from the New Jersey Library for the Blind. Every day, I would come home from school, play the tapes, and try out the commands. I also borrowed some tapes on WordPerfect 5.1, so that I could teach myself how to use that as well. Even after we got our first real Windows machine, an IBM Abtiva, in 1996 or so, I still went to the old machine to do my homework. I didn't like the keyboard on the new one, but I didn't know it could be changed. Still, I joined in as my parents played games like Silent Steel on it. Then, one day, I came home and tried to turn on my machine. But no matter what I did, it wouldn't work. I was so upset that I literally cried, and that was rare for me, even then!
Years passed, and I eventually started using Windows 95 by myself, with JFW 3.3 and then 3.7, before switching to XP and 4.0, 4.02, and my final version, 4.5. But I still loved all things DOS, and knowing this, my braille teacher managed to get me an Echo PC synthesizer, an extra Keynote Gold VoiceCard, , an Accent SA (that I could never get to work on anything), an incredibly old (even for me) Keynote PC laptop, MasterTouch (which I could never figure out), Vert (don't try that screen reader unless you want a headache), and best of all, two Keynote Gold laptops. They contained what I later learned to be a stripped down version of MSDOS 6.21, WordPerfect 5.1, and LetterPerfect. Plus, it had the KeySoft suite for DOS, , and Windows 3.1, neither of which I ever really used. By this time, I was in high school, and no longer had my tapes. So it became a hobby for me, except when I would do my homework using WordPerfect 5.1 and save it as txt.
I was graduated from high school in 2002, and as a gift, the school gave me a fully functioning Apple IIGS, complete with printer and paper. They would have thrown it away, but they knew I loved old technology, and I had wanted my own Apple for as long as I could remember. I immediately called APH and bought Pro Term and TextTalker, neither of which I ever got to use, as everything was put in the attic! Now, entering college, I switched my notetaker. Even with my love of antiques, I hated the Braille Lite. It was great as a synthesizer, but as an actual notetaker, it would make me lose files, or would scramble them, and was generally very buggy. So when they suggested a Pac Mate, I refused, opting for a BrailleNote. I knew it was made by the same people who made the Keynote laptops, so figured they were a safer bet. I was right. I also switched from JFW to Hal, since at that time, it was the only screen reader I knew of which could handle Greek. Since I would no longer be using braille books, the Commission got me Kurzweil 1000, version 6, and my whole world changed! Later, it would become a chore, with hundreds of pages to read. But I loved scanning, and even now, the idea of turning the printed word into something readable makes me smile.
Several years after being graduated from college, I switched to NVDA, which I now use exclusively. I also found the synthesizer cable for my Keynote Gold laptops, which had been lost for about seven years! I thought that, since I now had the time, I could sit back and continue my studies in DOS, and also in QuickBASIC, since I was now interested in programming. But the laptops lacked a critical key for the language, and eventually, both machines stopped working properly. I think the CMOS batteries need to be changed, or perhaps, there's something wrong with the bios. In either case, my long and frustrating search for the perfect DOS machine began. I wanted one that could not only handle the old things, but new ones as well, since there have been advances, both in the operating system and in new programs made for it.
One day, a few years ago, I found something truly amazing on Ebay. It was a talking bar code scanner, called an ID Mate Omni. I won it , complete with accessories and case, for $48. It was one of the best things I ever bought in my life, and is among my most cherished possessions, along with my Language Master, and several original books and tapes of our national saviours from The Revolution of 21 April, 1967. Another great find is my Wilson digital recorder. It's still made, and is one of the simplest on the market. It's small and light weight, with a great battery life. Last year, I traded my Jot a Dot (a handheld brailler) for a PLEXTALK Pocket, which I really enjoy, as I can record mp3s and listen to my txt books, music, and movies on an easy-to-use device. I also bought the Read and Write Slate, which has a roller like a Perkins, combined with a hollow-pointed stylus. This enables me to write from left to right and read my work without having to flip over the page. It's rare that I use it, but sometimes, I like to get away from the world of technology for awhile. Other than using a Macbook with Leopard and Snow Leopard for a few years, my several-month-long Nexus 7 Android fiasco with Jelly Bean and Kit Cat, and my horrible choice of trying Windows 8/8.1, which lasted under two months, nothing much has changed in my computing life. I use Windows XP and 7 daily. My latest adventure has been trying to buy my first smart phone. I found a few, but Code Factory and Nuance have both given me a headache with trying to find Mobile Speak and Talks, respectively.
Domestic Goddess, I never saw a hard cover braille book in school, unless it was from the library. All of mine were soft cover, with spiral bindings, which I appreciated, and single-sided braille, which I didn't like. I had no idea that you were a DOS user for so long, nor that you had used a Nokia phone! How much of those things do you remember? If I were to get stuck in something, and couldn't find the answer in a manual, would you be able to help me on either system?
johndy, oh how I wish I could have an Opticon! I have wanted one since high school, when I first heard about them! I seriously cannot begin to describe the emotions I feel when I hear that word. Desire, and also anger that they never brought the concept into the modern age! How truly amazing it would be to be able to sit down at something like a braille display, hooked up to a computer, and actually read print letters! It would clear my Greek ocr headache immediately! I would just need to learn the alphabet and accents and I would be set! I taught myself the slate and stylus, mostly because I was interested in it as a hobby. I could never imagine writing seriously or quickly with one, especially when I had a Perkins, and then my electronic notetakers. I love records, but sadly, I never used any of the ones from the NLS. The New Jersey Library for the Blind actually offered to give me an incredible amount of them, but I had to refuse, because I didn't have the room. Back then, I wasn't living in my apartment above the house. So I missed out on a golden opportunity. I wonder if I could get the tapes. I never used their digital materials. I can't even imagine filling 700gb. I could easily get by with between 80 and 120. But even if I put all of the files that I possess on a drive, I still couldn't fill more than 200gb, and that's exaggerating!
johndy, I have never paid more than a sighted person for a Windows machine. Even when I bought Hal, the Commission paid for it. Since then, I've been using NVDA, and that is totally free. Even ocr software has dramatically decreased in prices, some as low as $79, though I would choose the mainstream FineReader, as it can handle Greek, unlike Kurzweil.
forereel, what system did the En V2 use, and how accessible was it? It's slightly old for me to consider as a smart phone, but I am still curious. I know I can look up the first part of my question, but not the second.
Domestic Goddess, the Braille N Print that I used worked with a parallel port. I have never actually seen a serial printer. I actually used both the slim line, as I mentioned earlier, and then a really large one. But I liked the former better, and as I said, I am seeking one.
johndy, the Keynote Golds that I have use a 486 processor and are still the fastest machines that I have ever owned, at least when it comes to bootup time. Maybe, you had the early Keynote PC? I literally got it, turned it on, and the disk failed. I don't know what I hit, but I couldn't get it back, which was a shame, as I wanted to play with it. As I said, even for me, it's old. But unlike the Gold, the PC uses some kind of built-in synthesizer, which I have never seen on a DOS machine! Someday, I will need to find the cord and disk for it again to see if I can res erect it. But I could easily switch between two documents on the Gold in WordPerfect, so I'm not sure what you meant there, unless you were using KeySoft. As for sd cards, I only have one, and I use it for my PLEXTALK. For everything else, I use either compact flash, usb flash, or 99% of the time, my Cruzer Fit thumb drives. wrm2012, would it be possible for you to record your calculator speaking? I am curious as to which one it is. I may have one. Does it have a strange male voice and play songs? I have an incredible clock from the early 90s. It's oval, with a round speaker, three sliders, two buttons, and a big button on the top. Everything speaks, and it has a female voice. But this is not the light, cheap version with a bell whenever you check the time. It uses one of the best synthesizers I have ever heard on anything, and my parents bought it for me at a regular store. Amazingly enough, every function speaks on it, and the battery life is a minimum of one year on three aa batteries! Where did you find the book on the abacus? I never learned how to use one, but bought one for myself so that I could learn.
HauntedReverie, I, too, remember the many braille books! I had a room full of them, in two filing cabinets and my aid would pick them out for me. Once, I had three volumes in class one day, because the teacher kept flipping pages! One book took up over 60 volumes! On one occassion, we ordered books from The Red Cross, and they arrived after the class had ended! I agree with you that skills are being lost. Technology is great, but there is a serious downside as well, which is why I try to remember things and to rely on myself as much as possible, instead of machines. Like you, I rarely use cash, as I buy most things online with debit. But the Eyebill does interest me.
The_Blind_Guardian, I don't really read braille either these days. I can still type incredibly fast on a braille writing device , but it's far easier to save things as txt or rtf, and read them on the computer. I can't believe that they actually made you use a Perkins for two years, due to a mistake! Even if you did it on purpose, you were still a child! I could understand limiting your usage for awhile, but not taking away such a valuable tool. I'm not sure of my exact speed on a qwerty keyboard, but I know it's fast.
hi5, I hate both cds and dvds. I have records that work correctly, but give me one of those and it will skip on me! If I have to buy them at all, I rip them and then put them away! I like boomboxes, and while most of my music is now on mp3, I still have a very large collection of records and tapes. I'm not sure which radios you mean. Thanks for the tip about channel 3! Currently, I have a combination tv-vcr, but I want to either switch to a regular television and plug a vcr into it, or have that combination in my bedroom and keep the two-in-one in the sittingroom. I don't have cable up here, as I don't watch television, but I would like to watch my tapes. I wanted a normal phone line with no features, mostly so that I could use a landline and have an excuse to use my dual cassette answering machine from 1982. But they just had internet, tv, and full-featured phone plans, so I said forget it. All of my appliances have dials, switches, or mechanical buttons, because I refuse to buy things with touchscreens. I didn't know that virtual pets were accessible! If so, which can you recommend? I remember Freedom Chat from when it was called Accessible Chat! What about TellMe, with the extensions and Graffiti? Do any phone lines like that still exist? I loved MSN Messenger, and used it with the Reviver, until it stopped working earlier this year. I was one of the first people to start using Skype. Then, the call quality wasn't the best (it's still not), but at least, the program design was clean and simple!
Domestic Goddess, I'm not sure why your son was surprised at the previews. I thought dvds have the same things.
This is a little off topic, but do they still make slinkey toys? A bunch of springs that you roll down the stairs. I found that to be fun as a kid. My girlfriend took hers over to the telephone and promptly tangled the springs in the phone cord hooked to the receiver. Boy what a tangled mess.
Me personally, I hated the Optacon. I was slow at it, and when I tried to sit down and actually read books with it, I could probably read a page in 20 minutes to a half-hour, but nothing like I could read in Braille. That was my first method of reading, and it has been up until recently. I decided I don’t have the room for all that Braille, otherwise I’d be reading Braille books all the damn time. The one thing I will say about the Optacon, though, was that it did give me an idea about how to write in print. My handwriting is excruciatingly awful because I’ve never really had to use it. So, whenever I write anything, which is very, very rarely, I at least know what the shapes of the print letters are so that I can sign my name, if nothing else.
I haven’t paid more for a Windows machine, or at least not that much more, but I have paid more, definitely,, for Dos machines. In fact, I probably paid about 6 grand at one time because of the speech card I had to put into the mmachine to run VocalEyes, then the programs, and then the scanners I had to use for scanning the print stuff myself. Those days are still a nightmare to mme because I will never again do that amount of scanning for any reason for anyone.
As for the Keynote, I did have the original 8088 model back when I was in law school. It did have its own screenreader, and a really, really primitive Dos rendition. It had its own separate disk drive that you put 3.5-inch disks in because the thing was always crashing. I used to like to do dream diaries back then, and I lost a whole lot of them. Going back and forth between documents was really impossible, because you had to first save the document you were in, close out of the document and then go back into another one. This was all either Dos-based or orphaned technology, so it was impossible to do anything efficiently. It got me into serious issues when I was at work for the court.
Ooh, VersaBraille! As heavy as a Perkins, but it was such a cool thing, in 1987. Sadly, for all my excitement over being granted the use of one, for one semester, it broke down so often, and I lost so much material, it just wasn't worth the bother.
Someone mentioned an Abacus book... can you share the title and say where you got it? I'm mildly interested in relearning to use one, just to exercise my brain. *grin* As for the Abacus itself, can't you buy them from APH? If not, I'm certain Ebay has them.
I'm 42, and read Braille from the age of three or four. I learned print as well, but never had vision enough to really use it, though I agree that it's so useful, just to know what print letters look like. It's always a little thrill to go into a bookstore and parse out raised letters on some of the dustjackets.
Boy, yeah, I remember those multi-volume braille books, with thermoformed plasticky pages. I liked the way they smelled. LOL The books in the 80s used to be more substantial, sturdier than those you now get from the NLS, which I loathe because they're so flimsy! But braille books are bulky and inconvenient--except for cookbooks, which I'd love to have in hardcopy Braille. But back to school days... I was allowed to keep a bookcase in most of my classrooms in public school, so I had several volumes available. However, teachers weren't always sharp enough to realize what I had, and what I didn't, so I would sometimes claim I did not have the correct volume, and therefore needed to go off to the resource room and get it. I loved getting out of class for ten minutes or so.
The one bit of tech I'm truly grateful to own is my braille display, the HIMS Braille Edge. I'd probably save it first, from a burning building! LOL That's how much I love this thing. It's the best designed display I've ever used, tactilely, and because of its simple menus, and since it's also a stand-alone machine, very useful! And yes, it's mind blowing to think how many thousand books, notes and shopping lists I travel with, these days!
I carried around a Perkins, as a kid, and it was such a commonplace thing, I thought little of it. Today, I wonder how I did it! I rarely use it now, but still have my original brailler from 1980, or so. I won't part with it. I taught myself to write with a slate in 6th grade, because all of the school's Perkins machines needed repairs, and didn't get done for a few months. I used to be quick on the slate, and still use it for labeling. If I had anyone to write a paper letter to, I would still enjoy doing that, from time to time. Braille, writing or reading it, is a restful activity, to me.
My first computer came along in 1997, DOS, which I clung to, as long as that computr held out, which was up to maybe 2002. I have adjusted to Windows and Jaws and Iphone, which I think I've barely tapped into, despite having it for three years now, but I dislike change, and am not interested in technology, for its own sake. (I have a friend who is, and who buys gadgets and gets the latest updates for all sorts of things, just because. She has Iphone and Android! LOL That's definitely not me.)
The Perkins was my very first keyboard; I actually started on it and learned to use it as early as 1971. Used it from first grade onward, and we thought, actually, that it had been destroyed on 9/11 in the Towers because a friend of mine borrowed it at one time for his girlfriend. They found it though, which probably isn't as good a story, but I sold it to them for $500.
What did the commodore 64 look like?
johndy, in my case, having something like the Opticon would enable me to read polytonic Greek, even mixed with English, directly off the page. I wouldn't have to play with ocr software that, at best, needs to be trained and can still only handle one language at a time, and at worst, won't read polytonic at all! Not to mention that ESpeak still needs a few improvements in that department as well.
I never saw that Keynote. Even the oldest one I have has a disk drive in the machine. It sounds like that one would be really annoying to use. I only found two DOS systems that I won't touch. Vert, and something called Provox. That last is actually open source, so theoretically, if someone had the knowledge, he could continue developing it to keep up with the modern improvements in DOS! *smile*
VioletBlue, I'm like you. I will get something, old or new, if it works for me and if I enjoy using it. Otherwise, I won't change a system if it meets my needs, nor will I go out of my way to buy something just because it's new.
I remember a toy from my childhood in the 70s, my parents got me a Tonka
dumptruck. I remember riding down the hill on that thing. I'd forgotten all
about that until my daughter was little, I went to the Tonka section and
observed the most unAmerican treasonous thing I've ever seen in a tryster: all
plastic ridable cars with dinky wheels. Lol I'm usually one to ditch the past in
the past, but, those big metal ones were way better. Those and the real
matchbox cars you could play in dirt with, or could even go through the washing
machine safely. Even open the doors on. Now they're collectors' items
apparently. The ones kids never played with, I bet.
I remember the Lionel race sets with the tracks you put together on the floor and operated by putting the cars on the track and pressing the buttons to make them go. Loved the old Matchbox cars; we used to have dozens of them back when I was a young kid of about four or five years old. I remember we had a wooden porchstep that was just the right size for a child to play matchbox cars on, so I'd have a whole pile of these cars that I'd used to pretend were on a highway that I'd zoom, one in front of the other. Imagination was the key back then.
What a fun topic this was to read. :)
hey domestic goddess, I'm older than are you.
in '62 I got my first brailler. my folks got it for me as a Christmas gift. I was in kindergarten. believe it or not, that was the only thing I wanted.
when I was in 4th grade I learned to write on a slate and stylus. do any of you young puppies even know what that is?
one of my first jobs was as a key punch operator. what a joy it was to take tictation and type it on these punch cards which wwere in a huge machine thingy.it had no memory. if the bathroom needed to be used or the lunch needed to be eaten, the machine had to stay on. god forbit id there was a power surge.
reel to reel tapes were another fun technology I used. they came in 7 inch or 3.5 inch. god forbid if there was a cink or twist. how well I remember my dad and mom stretching one throughout the house to find a a mess up and fi it.
when I was real little there was a big change from 33-1/3 to 16 rpm talking books. oh these were books on recoreds. do you kids know what they are? anyway, there was a huge argument, kind of like ueb, about if this should be done. then we went from 16 to 8. same arguments. and then the dreaded flexible disk reared its head. books on the talking book machine, record player, sounded poor.
my mom read to me throughout childhooe and adolescence. since she was a librarian at our local braille talking subregional library, what I got was shall we say limited. when shepassed, one of her colleagues brought me Danielle stee, Barbara cartland, and Jackie Collins books. oh my was I thrilled.
twhen in college I used teletypes to communicate with the mainframe computer. I had to pay a reader to tell me what the poor resuts of my programming was.
myin my first job I got output from a mainframe in braille. the book I had to use was two volumes two feet tall. I am not exaggerating.
in 82 I got a talking terminal. thank goodness.
my first experience with a pc was an apple ii E. this was in '84. the big discussion before marriage was should we upgrad from 60 to 128 k.
I could go on an d on but you get the idea.
oh one more thing the first ibm type pc we had was a lone with two floppy disks. it was an 8086 and cost $1,263.00.
I certainly don't miss tapes and records, though in some cases, an original vinyl might actually sound better than the CD version of an album.
other technology that came to mind after I finished. in 1967 when I was in 5th grade, I got my first cassette recorder. dad got it for Christmas. mom complained that it was a waste of money and no one would ever use them. I used it until I went to college in 75. does anyone remember the rca tv radio? they were cool. it had the tv channels and two through 9 had a regular dial that clicked like a tv. it was completely marked in braille, had grat reception and good tone.
After reading this board post, I noticed that no one had the unique perspective of growing up with the blindness technologies from multiple countries. If they did, they didn't mention it, or I was not paying enough attention. If it was the latter, then my apologies. Anyway, onward to my own personal experiences.
I grew up in Iraq. Stayed there from 1983 (the year of my birth) until 1991. I won't even discuss how it was there, growing up with a double minority (being a Christian and blind) since that's not really what this topic is about. Anyway as you can imagine, the technology was pretty behind the times. Blind people there did not use canes. Furthermore, they were segregated into their own school, not mainstreamed. The only writing tool that we had was the slate and stylus, so I got really really good with that bad boy.
Fast forward to 1991 when I moved to the United States and attended a mainstreamed school. Sensory overload would've been the best way to describe my time. I barely knew any English, and had to learn to use a lot of blindness tech that I had never even imagined before, including a brailler and a cane. I also had to learn to read a new type of braille on top of that. I use to hate carrying that brailler around, just like the rest of you. At least it made my arms stronger though!
When my English started to get much better, I started using an apple 2E, like a seeming majority of you. My first real home computer was a windows 95 with JAWS 3.0. I used a braille 'n Speak and a braille lite throughout middle school and high school respectively along with that windows 95 computer, as well as a tape recorder to record notes and go back through them to get any tidbits I may have missed.
In College, I got a braille lite M20, continued to use a tape recorder and have continued to upgrade my computers since. I also still used JAWS, my only preferred screen reader. Got my first iPhone back in 2012 and have pretty much stuck with that model as well. My braille lite is still in perfect working condition, though I obviously don't use it as much as I use to.
I hated flexi discs. They always had speed problems because the record was so light, and a lot of times they got all bent up in the mail.
I rarelyi carried a brailler anywhere. I'm fat slow and lazy. slate and stylus for me. I'd keep those five subject spiral notebooks and do my class notes in them. I felt very much like my sighted classmates that way. rarely did I use a tape recorderfor class lectures. I figured attending them once was bad enough. I didn't want to relive the experience. a whole other use for flexidisks was for other things after their useful life had past. I know people who made stuff out of them. also some people used them with additions to them as slide rules
Plexidisks made decent dart boards too. Can't believe someone else didn't mention that, I can't be the only huligan on here. :P
If I wore a hat I would take it off to anyone who can write super fast on the slate.
I was never super fast, but that is what I carried everywhere also. I got the point I did a kind of shorthand that extended my notetaking ability. Fast enough, but never so fast as certain ideologues claim they are.
I prefer the slate when it comes to making labels. Even with all the cool talking doodads, I'd still rather see a pantry full of labeled cans and bottles.
Maddog, you have my respect. I can't imagine having to make such a transition in my life as you spoke about.
Vert??? Yuck. I used that for all of one day when I was an intern.
Vert was what we had at the student library at PSU, which was open for students and disabled members of the community.
Plus any speech based system the blind shared with the dyslexic and other learning disabilities, at least in those days.
oh, this'll be fun!
I was 6 when I first got introduced to the perkins brailer. Carried that thing
till 5th grade. By that time, I was learning how to use a computer, different
keystrokes with jaws, and th homerow keys. Afterwords, they decided to
give me a braillenote in fifth grade. lasted for 3 and a half years when I
broke a charger. they ended up buying me another in the 8th grade but I
didn't need it much when they gave me a laptop and a refreshable braille
display. At 8th grade, used those precious devices! And, now in tenth
grade, I'm still using the abacus, (although I don't use it much), talking
calculator, laptop, braille display, and jaws. I grew up with jaws so I'm used
to it. I got my first IPhone last year and love it! I see how times have
changed for some of you so I understand. :)
oh, I hated those times that I had to ask for different volumes. that stoped
when I discovered bookshare and braille on demand. Carrying those huuge ass
books is something I don't miss. :p
Ahh, yes. Nothing like realizing you've brought the wrong volume to class.
On one hand, I think about how lucky today's students are with refreshable braille displays and SD cards. Then, I think about the challenges they face in the "digital divide." Many digital teaching tools used for K-12 education seem to be inaccessible or completely visually driven. I can count the times my son has brought home a textbook on one hand. I doubt teachers have gotten better about turning in worksheets in time to be put into braille, and I know for a fact that they don't scan for crap, so I would imagine that today's youth have their own set of access troubles.
I guess that's why they say, "the more things change, the more they stay the same." lol
Sho ya right. Lol
I have to admit some of the magic is gone when it comes to books. By that I mean that now I can go online and download everything to my laptop and put it onto an SD card so that I can read it with my Victor. Back in ancient times when the Five Good Emperors ruled, I used to order books on Braille Book Review and TB Topics by circling the items I wanted in the Braille forms, sending them in the mmail and waiting with baited breath for cassette, flexible disc and Braille books to come to me. I never knew what I was getting until I opened the cassette or flexible disc or Braille boxes. Kinda like Christmas only it was May 24 or something. Now that I know what I'm downloading, the excitement is gone to a degree. Anyone else feel the same?
Kinda of. I mean I sort of miss the physical braille book that you can hold in your hands, but like I said earlier the portability factor of today is simply amazing.
Nope. I still order musty old gbooks. Lol
For whatever reason, I just like reading a book.
Maybe if I purchased a display I'd change, but not until they make me.
Plus, I provide job security. The Mail man/woman has to deliver. Lol
Aah yes vintage audio! The next stereo I get will be exclusively vintage audio. None of these current piles of plastic crap that pass for stereos will let you shape sound like you could on say a marantz amp from 86 that could connect a twenty band equaliser, and good floorstanding speakers like ither a large advent, jbl, cerwin vega or any of those brands.
Ah. That is because you don't shop top notch.
They've got some new stuff that will knock your socks off.
Empty your wallet too, but...
Lol
Yeah, some of the magic is gone with today's abundance of choices, but I wouldn't go back to the lame trickle of books I had access to, in the 80s and 90s!
It was fun getting books or tapes in the mail, but only when it turned out to be something I actually cared to read. The lib would send random books, and only rarely was it something I liked. but that's how I got my hands on some steamy romances, as a teenager, though. Haha Luckily, my mom never bothered to check the titles of what arrived in the mailbox for me. She's not a reader herself though, so unless the title had been something very obvious, she wouldn't have known.
I do miss real braille books, but not those boxes they used to ship them in. Those things could be hellishly difficult to break into, with metal clips digging in to fabric straps. Remember that? At least now you get nice velcro.
All I really wish for in book form, these days, is cookbooks. Someone should print and sell them, actual cookbooks, not just someone's collection of recipes embossed and spiral-bound.
I'm not comfortable having my Braille Edge in the kitchen, and I don't want to have to braille out every recipe, myself. And I'm less likely to spend the time on the chore of wading through a scan of a cookbook, when most likely it has errors in it; whereas I'd happily flip through a braille book, if I had one.
I love Braille cookbooks. I bought an old embosser from the mid-80's off ebay for $250 about 10 years ago and it was one of my better purchases. I braille many of my recipes and bind them myself now.
Perhaps I should start binding them for others. *smile*
I see where you're going to with the point about some of the surprise factor disapating. I agree with VB though. I'll take selection any day of the week. lol Besides, didn't it suck when you got crappy books??? lol
In fact, my name is Domesstic Goddess and I am a book horder.
And yes, I have the Texas State Library talking book program to thank for much of the smut I shouldn't have been reading as a teen ager. Thank goodness for TSL. lol Judith Krantz, anyone?
The other thing I don't miss is falling asleep and losing my place and having to rewind for eons.
Yes; it did suck to get bad books, especially when you ordered specifically what you wanted and got something really, really lame. One time I got Eating Ice-Cream with a Ghost or something when (a) I was 20 years old, and (b) I obviously wouldn't order that shit. I called mmy local library and yelled at them for that. So, that sort of magic I don't miss. Plus, there's a lot to be said for portability. I literally have thousands of books at my disposal now between my Victor and SD cards and the NLS reading machine and several thumbdrives. So, while the surprise I mentioned is gone, I can de-stress with a book that I definitely know I'll re-read for that purpose (old PG Wodehouse, anyone?) And basically it's there as long as I want it.
I definitely do miss reading a good old fashioned braille book, myself. I know portable braille displays and braille book readers (hopefully) are the future though, so I resigned myself to that. They are both more convenient, and make me feel a bit nostalgic about the braille books I use to enjoy reading and flipping through. There's always been that magic though, as others have said about reading stuff brailled on crisp, thick, extra large braille paper.
My libarary sends me exactly what I order mostly.
I've got my settings set this way, so I don't get a bunch of junk.
It is just a matter of how you deal with your reader advisor and how well she or he does the job.
Lol.
/me looks in my wallet for 3.000 for a braille display.
See, doesn't cost me a dime to order my books. Lol
No, I don't get the latest, but that doesn't matter. I haven't read the books I get, so all new to me.
Oh, and I should admit I use the website from my computer, new tech, to order old books.
This is probably the reason I get exactly what I ordered too.
*grin*.
Tell ya what though, I sure as hell don't miss thermoform.
You don't miss hearing squeaking noises as your finger goes screeching across the page?
Thermoform? I haven't thought about that stuff in years. lol
Did any one else have to use thos tactile diagramming kits that had really thick aluminium foil? Man, that stuff was rough on the fingers.
Never heard of those. I used the wicky sticks or whatever the fuck they're called.
Oh yeah, the mapping kit! yes, could be painfully sharp, but I loved playing with it, once when I was allowed to take it home. Otherwise, a tracing wheel and notebook paper could provide hours of cheap entertainment.
B
I liked Thermoform! True, in hot weather it wasn't too comfortable to read, but that's a minor drawback.
I bought a pack of that paper. I use it for recipes, for those I intend to keep and refer to, often.
Yes please, DG, go into the book production business!
An embosser is top on our list of wished-for technology, around here. Yours is really that old, and you can make it work with a modern computer? How great! And how intriguing. Hmm.
Yep, sure can. It's a VP1 by Versapoint. I'm pretty sure it was manufactured in the mid to late-80s. It's a tank. lol I connect it to my laptop via a parallel to USB cable and use Openbook's translation feature to emboss my files. It's a very basic grade 2 translater but it gets the job done for my needs.
oh I love all the new technology. having access to the same books as my sighted peers is amazing to me. it always really annoyed me that some people at the library of congress determined what we could read. I'm not disrespecting the talking book and braill programs. it's just that I always wanted to go in to a book store and pick out what I wanted without knowing someone else screened it before I got it. I don't know if that makes sense. every time I go on to kindle and get a book to download on my phone and they say some million of books are available I think "and I'm gonna read every single one of you." when I was a kid and my friends passed around paperback books, it really made me feel sad that I couldn't own some too. now I can. you all miss those days when you waited for the mailman. I'm downloading like a house on fire and it is just as exciting!!!
I'm completely with you, Turricane.
And, no disrespect, but Braille transcription services could be just as bad as to what they'd translate or not, even if you offered them cash to do it. The only thing good ever came from sensorship is it's being gone.
Amen!
Now, if I would only read 1/4 of what I download, I would be a much smarter person. lol
leo, back in my radical high school youth I wanted to read a book by che Guevara. all my friends read it. they were discussing a title I couldn't get. it wasn't available on the library, at rfb, now learning ally and where else could I go? could I ask my mom to read it to me? i don't think so. as an adult, I finally went on book share, and looking behind me to make sure no one was going to jump out, grab me, and say "you can't read that you blind woman!!!!" I downloaded it. after reading it, honestly I couldn't see what the big fuss was about. however, I got to have the opportunity to make that decision on my own. when my daughter gave birth to the beautiful nina grand daughter, it was so wonderful that she could get all kinds of child birth books previously unavailable to her. ina may's guide to child birth. etc. etc. etc. we couldn't have those books at all back in my kid's birthing time. you people wait breathlessly for the mail to bring your books. knowledge is power and I intend to be the world dominator in that department
Lol, reminds me of something from the late 90s ... this isn't a book from a site, but, I downloaded the Unibomber Manifesto because I could, and because I was curious what that character thought. Guarantee you the transcriptionists would have flushed a royal pink, or pinked a royal flush, if you'd have taken them a copy of that and some cash to see if they'd transcribe that for you.
From day one, I was given a Perkins. I didn't even see a computer until I was nine,
when I was given nvda. Yay for me. My first notetaker was a braille lite in fifth grade.
I eventually got a braille note classic in seventh grade. Finally got something
resembling a real notetaker in eighth grade, a braille plus 18. Except that failed.
Freshman year saw me receiving a braille sense, finally something worth my time and
energy to use. I also have a decent knowledge of computer usage, and FINALLY have
my own laptop. Still don't have an iphone, instead have a horribly inaccessible
samsung phone. that I have had since 2012. Apparently almost seventeen year old girls
don't have any need or use for accessible phones.
Another thing? No spotify or apple music back then. Back in 2005 and 06 I was so anti apple it was not funny. LOL i said yeah I have an ipod but it was mp3 cds I would burn on weekends when I was home from the blind school. The end of 2006 I did get an 80 gb ipod and never looked back. Now I play music off of apple music on my 6s from my Verizon connection.
Does anyone remember the Ureka computer? An amazing beast, very flat, with a massive speaker grill on the front and a braille keyboard for inputting. The speech synthesiser was something else, so robotic it was beautiful! This was my first ever computer, gifted to me by my tech savvy mum once she'd done with it. This was in the early 90s, but she'd had it for years so I'm not sure when they first came out. I played the whole of Zork from that thing, and got introduced to super duper games like "hunt the wumpus". Oh how I'd love to get hold of one of those again!
From there, it was on to a humungus dos laptop, again, a cast of from mother dearest as she upgraded with work. It was so big that I couldn't lift it without help, got dead legs when I put it on my knee, and probably would have won the world weightlifting competition after bench pressing it around for years! It ran dos, had about 2 mb of storage space, required a plug in box to run Dectalk which would or would not boot depending on whether it was raining or not, whether I'd decided to have eggs for breakfast or not, or, just really when it felt like it. I thought it was the fastest thing in the universe.
I had the user, brailler at school, then a Braille N Speak 440, with a massive 440 kb of storage space! I thought all my Christmases had come at once when it was upgraded to a 640 kb model. I could store loads on there!
Then mum had another upgrade and I got my first PC. I graduated from a typewriter to this, and didn't have a clue what I was doing. It ran Windows 98, and had a massive 1.57GB of storage space! I thought I was king of the world! It even had a 56K mdem, and to this day, the noise of a dial up still brings back that rush of excitement I used to get when myself and my teenaged girl friends used to sneak covertly upstairs to dial up, cut my granny's ability to gossip with her friends on the phone, and log into the forbidden Yahoo chatrooms to chat with mysterious, hot lads who were so far out of our league it's funny to even think of it!
I love technology still, and feel very privileged to have had so much of it growing up, but it's kind of sad now. Everything moves so fast that we don't really get the chance to grow to love our pieces of kit like we did the old ones. There's no time to dream and lust after the idea of a msssive leap in tech, because it's always just the next iPhone or PC model away. I'm kinda glad that driverless cars have come along, as that's allowed excitement to build for years and years now.
Now if there was some sort of braille iPhone, I'd get one of those in a heartbeat.
I remember carrying that perkins brailler around for some of my classes all threw middle school. Try lugging that heavy monster up and down two or three flights of stairs! I always carried at least two volumes of a book with me, depending on the subject. In some of my classes, the books were kept in the room. I used a franklyn language master off and on threw middle school, the good old days of study hall when I would just sit there and play games on the darn thing instead of doing my homework. I started using a computer in the fifth grade, using a program called intella talk, which had one of the worst synths I've ever heard! It was a basic program that would announce letters as you typed them and the words when you hit the spacebar. In eighth grade, the school finally got me jaws three something, I think, which caused us no end of trouble on that slow and clunky computer.That's when I started using the internet, but because I only had access to it at school, I only used it for school related crap. Fast forward to the ninth grade and a new school district. I went from using the clunky brailler to a braillenote classic, running keysoft four, which I thought was the best thing in the world.I did everything on there, from homework to reading books for pleasure. During high school, I got more access to the internet, but it was still limited to school. During high school, I went from jaws three to window-eyes five, and there were times when I wanted to just smack the computer, because window-eyes loved to lock up like all the time. I go my first talking cellphone, an lg something in late 2005, maybe early 2006.A few years ago, I left that old and useless phone behind when its battery finally died, and bought my first IPhone in late 2010.
I used Outspoken for Mac and Outspoken for windows for the first few years of blindy school, then they finally got Jaws and I haven't looked back. Still have my language master.
Well we can now add window eyes to this list. :( I really did not like window eyes but i really don't like that window eyes will be discontinued.
I kinda wish Eloquence was a voiceover option.
I really, really wish Eloquence was a Voiceover option! I do all my reading with Voicedream on my phone, and I use Fred, because he's the closest to that sound there is, and since Fred became an option, I now use my phone a lot more.
I hate the supposedly humanlike speech! Give me computery robotic speech, please. Speed is faster, it's easier on the ear, and sighted people can't understand it. LOL ...not that I much care about that, but it's a bonus.
*shudders* Fred sounds so weird.
Let's see, the Apple 2E and GS with the Echo speech synthesizer, good times. Then of course there were the Sharp and Speech Plus talking calculators. Overflow. LOL.
Please hurry!
This may not count, but does anyone remember a talking battleship game? I mean it had regular game pieces and the voice came from the board.
*grin* BryanP, I can guess that you and I are of the same generation. Apple 2E was part of my high school years. My friend and I had too much fun making the computer sing and rap. LOL I think this being my first bit of tech with speech, that must explain my fondness for Iphone's Fred voice.
And Sharp calculators! I still have one, although I rarely put batteries in it. However, I also have the cube clock with that same voice in, and I use him to this day. He's 31 years old, and still working beautifully! He lives in the kitchen, but well away from any food prep areas, announcing the hours, and useful for the timer.
I bought a second one on Ebay, and that one is on my bedside table, although rarely checked, since my phone is always near at hand.
The echo synth sounded rather sinister when it dropped in pitch for the math programs. But then, math is evil, so.....
Well Vilet I'm 37 this year. I was four or five when I used the Apple 2E. And I agree about the sinister Echo voice and math being evil LOL.
The space invaders thing was kinda cool though.
I had the apple 2e as well, but hated textalker3.1.3. Any disk that had that version I used the fid program to roll textalker back to 1.3. You knew textalker 3.1.3 was on a disk because of the speaking style, and if you saw the files textalker.ram and textalker.obj. For 1.3 it was textalker.ram and textalker.ram.obj. I know some would say why revert textalker, but I always did.