I fear my comments were misunderstood to some extent. For the record:
1. I use Braille and love Braille. However, I'm not in favor of the
continual push to make Braille obsolete by sighted tech developers and
blind people who do not use Braille.
2. Electronic / refreshable Braille is a major step forward as it makes
something portable which is inherently bulky and not very portable. That
said, the cost of refreshable Braille is, and has always been, too high.
Even so, I use almost exclusively refreshable Braille.
3. I was a user of the Optacon from nearly its introduction. I loved the
device and was very sorry when it left the market. It silently did things
no speech output device can duplicate. But, alas it's gone. My statement
this reminded me of the optacon was not a negative, just a note. I must
say though that any of us who used the optacon know how fussy it could be
to get lined up on complex text pages. It was remarkably useful though on
digital display readouts like a timer or other appliance.
4. I would never tell another person that their preference for a
particular technology was dumb. I've marched against the stream myself too
often to do that. Different strokes for different folks. This just seems
to me like another well-meaning device developed by people who don't live
blindness. That said, Terri's comments are certainly valid, and I could
see that use.

Happy Friday all!
Bill


-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of brian sackrider
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2014 6:29 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VICUG-L] response to Bill

This is a response to Bill if the finger reader is not for you than don't
buy it but don't cast it out if you have not tried it.  There is not one
solution for every problem or for every situation.  Many blind people do
use more than one screen reader because one does not read everything.
Each one has it's own strengths and weaknesses and so does scanning
reading devices.  the opticon is not for me but there are users that love
it.  Braille is still a very usful and very viable tool for certain
situations it does not need any power and is always there and available
sodon't toss out braille either it makes us blind people literate and
don't forget about braille displays I have never used one but I would be
interested in using one if I had the chance to do so.
What is junk to you might be the greatest treasure to somone else. We all
have our own opinions about what works best for each of us. I use nvda for
my screen reader but I have friends who like jaws.  I will always advocate
and use braille when and whear ever possable. I don't have an iphone or
any other idevice  as I don't have any intrest in them but if I had the
chance to try them then I might like them.
Brian Sackrider


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