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That's the bad news. The good news is that some great assistive technology is out there to deal with vision disabilities: Talking computers and magnification products help visually impaired people to see or to have materials read to them. And with so many good products, there's no reason why the majority of blind and visually impaired people can't live happy, productive lives. With such technology, companies have little excuse for shunning many legally blind people as workers -- especially with the job market as tight as it is. Just ask Kit Dewyer and Andre "Bill" Darnaud. Although their vision is so impaired as to classify them as legally blind, they're working because they have the technology to assist them, and because they're motivated to be independent. Neither believes legal blindness is a disability. A hindrance and a challenge, yes, but not a disability. CYBER SLEUTHER. Dewyer, who is in her early thirties, has macular degeneration. She has been working for 25 years for her father's business, All States Machinery Movers in Ann Arbor, Mich., a business he founded before she was born. Darnaud, 77, is a former San Diego policeman who was diagnosed in 1990 with optic atrophy. Like Dewyer, he, too, is legally blind. Today, he is a private investigator with a seeing-eye dog. His specialty is finding missing persons. He doesn't carry a gun, and he doesn't "tail" people. He does all his sleuthing on the Web with the assistance of image-processing program that provides magnified picture and text viewing and synthetic speech synchronized with the text display. He won't reveal how he locates his subjects. That's a trade secret. But he's a recognized expert in the field. Although they don't know each other and live a thousand miles apart, Dewyer and Darnuad both use a talking VIP Browser from JBliss Imaging Systems. The talking browser optimizes displays for them. Command menus describing shortcut keys help them navigate the system. An interactive learning mode announces the keys when they press them (that helps with learning how to use the system). Darnaud says he is still learning to master it after a year. Dewyer feels comfortable with it. To install and use the VIP software, you need a computer with at least a 100-Mhz processor, 16 MB RAM, 100 MB of hard-drive free space, 2-MB video card (the camera features require a card capable of video capture such as the ATI All-in-Wonder), a SoundBlaster-compatible sound card, speakers, TWAIN-compatible scanner, a CD-ROM, and a 3.5-inch floppy-disk drive. The software is compatible with Windows 95/98. "I CAN COMPETE." "As with other browsers, I can bookmark, chronicle the history of my surfing session, and find specific words and text from previous occurrences," Dewyer adds. She's a busy worker. "I take care of the books, invoice customers, deposit money in our bank, answer the telephone, and perform other tasks," she says. She's proud of her accomplishments and admits freely: "Speech products made my life so much simpler. I love the independence it gives me. I can compete with anyone on any level with these products." Says Darnoud: "The browser initially displays only text and links. It highlights and announces the links and gives me the option to list all the links on the page. The other Web elements are represented as icons, and this allows me to download and magnify images on demand." Darnaud and Dewyer are on their computers about six hours a day. Both of them use the system to write E-mail, and they scan pictures and text into their systems. Dewyer prefers reading this way. The VIP browser doesn't just magnify text but also electronically processes graphics in full color and automatically converts digitized letter images into customized formats that suit the user's individual needs. For Darnaud, having a talking computer and a low-vision product that magnifies print up to 60 times its size is a life saver. He considers himself to be a superb researcher, and these products mean everything to him. In addition to office duties, Dewyer is using her speech product to work on her Master's degree in the learning disabilities field, and she teaches blind children how to use the talking browser. "It makes all the difference in the world to a student with a learning disability to utilize technology to help them learn to spell and to write. This talking computer does that." The price for the VIP Browser alone is $250. If the buyer is a registered owner of VIP or ezVIP (reading/magnification software), or if they purchase the VIP Browser with VIP or ezVIP, then the price is $150. Both prices include the speech synthesizer. For information on the VIP products visit www.JBliss.com. Share your opinion of Bowe's new book on BW Online's Assistive Tech Forum. Or, if you have a question about assistive technology, write to John at JMMAW@aol.com EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT |
