Comments on: With Friends Like This….

By: Darrell

Darrell — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 00:32:18 +0000

I wrote the following note to Judy:

Hi Judy,

It is now 5:15 in the evening. I am sitting here in my cube working as a senior technical support engineer. A colleague made me aware of your article entitled “Computers for the Blind”. I was shocked!

I am an accessibility advocate, information technology professional and the publisher of Blind Access Journal found at http://www.blindaccessjournal.com. I read and write hundreds of e-mails per day. I send and receive instant messages, browse the web, create and read documents and do all the other techie things a typical professional such as myself does on a daily basis. I happen to be almost totally blind! An additional piece of software known as a screen reader provides the displayed text in Braille and speech in a manner I can comprehend. I happen to switch between two screen readers, one is called JAWS (Job Access With Speech) manufactured by Freedom Scientific and the other is called Window-Eyes manufactured by GW Micro. Freedom Scientific (http://www.freedomscientific.com) and GW Micro (http://www.gwmicro.com) are examples of companies doing business in the assistive technology industry, which serves the needs of the blind, visually impaired and many other technology users with disabilities.

Though the accessibility currently available to us is far from perfect, it is also far from nonexistent. Cooperation between the assistive technology industry and developers of mainstream technology is becoming more and more necessary in order for us to maintain our current abilities to use technology as well as to enhance the access available to the electronic world around us. There are definite challenges to our continued accessibility. Awareness is the first step in insuring our continued ability to learn, work and play through the use of technology. I hope I have helped to raise your awareness of the abilities of the blind with respect to accessing computer technology. If you have any questions or would like additional information, please, by all means, feel free to ask me or others from the blind community.

Sincerely,

Darrell Shandrow

By: Joanie

Joanie — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 14:16:14 +0000

Thanks redux! I did the same, and received the following terse reply:

I see, but can the blind visualise images as easily as you and I can, was the point I was trying to make, and thanks for your well thought out comments, Judy-

I didn’t bother responding.

By: redux

redux — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 11:45:20 +0000

i’ve emailed the author and – in as diplomatic a tone as i could muster – suggested that she’d read up on “braille displays” and “screenreaders” before painting an inaccurate picture of blind people. her reply was a bit terse, but she at least aknowledged that she will. one down, a few million to go…

By: Joanie

Joanie — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 00:41:01 +0000

Ah, well, maybe I take double-takes too easily then (grin). Sadly, there are plenty of people who hold firm to the notion, as you put it, “of poor blind people not being able to do anything.” I guess what struck—and dismayed—me the most is that someone posted this notion in the form of an article. Her publishing such misinformation is not doing folks who are blind or visually impaired any favors…

By: redux

redux — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 00:14:58 +0000

maybe i missed the double-take-worthy bit, but from what i can see the author’s only problem is that she is obviously completely unaware of any assistive technology, living in blissful ignorance with a “romantic” (?) idea of poor blind people not being able to do anything…