60 Minutes
       Copyright (c) 1998 CBS, Inc.  All rights reserved.

                     Sunday, March 29, 1998

 Profile: The mother of invention; people who invent devices to
help them cope
                   with their own disabilities

     THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

     LESLEY STAHL, co-host:

     'Necessity is the mother of invention' is one of those
phrases everybody uses, even though it's rare that they can come
up with something it truly applies to.  Tonight, we will.  The
necessity in our story is the need of the disabled to get around
like the rest of us.  The invention is the inventive way they're
using their own ingenuity to do it.

     (Footage of Tom Houston)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Tom Houston is a pretty good golfer.  No
big deal, until you see his golf cart.  Tom is a paraplegic,
paralyzed by a construction accident in 1980.

     What happened?

     Mr.  TOM HOUSTON: Well, I was on a scaffold that collapsed
about four stories up, 40 feet.  Fell.  Spinal cord injury,
thoracic 10 level.

     STAHL: You're a paraplegic?

     Mr.  HOUSTON: Yeah, paraplegic.

     STAHL: You're paralyzed from...

     Mr.  HOUSTON: Paralyzed from there down.

     STAHL: ...from there down.

     Mr.  HOUSTON: Yes.

     STAHL: You're standing up?

     Mr.  HOUSTON: Yeah.  Awesome.

     STAHL: Awesome.

     Mr.  HOUSTON: Awesome, yeah.

     STAHL: Well...

     Mr.  HOUSTON: I get to be eye-to-eye with people, and it's
pretty cool.

     (Footage of Houston; Houston's stand-up wheelchair; Houston
on the golf course)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) The coolest thing is that Tom Houston
invented this stand-up wheelchair himself, and now owns the
company that manufactures it for others.  He calls it the
HiRider, and he designed it because he got tired of being down
there, in his old wheelchair, when everyone else was up here.

     Mr.  HOUSTON: (Voiceover) Everybody else is walking.

     I want to get up and walk with them.  If I go into a
restaurant, if it's two feet from my van to the door, I stand up
to go through the door.  The first person that sees me when I go
in that restaurant, we're gonna be up here with each other.

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Tom is right up here on the golf course,
too. He doesn't play wheelchair golf, or handicapped golf.  He
plays hit-it-from-a-bad-lie, blast-it-out-of-a-sand-trap golf.

     Mr.  HOUSTON: (Voiceover) Was not a golfer before I was
injured.

     STAHL: (Voiceover) You started after?

     Mr.  HOUSTON: (Voiceover) After, yeah.

     Everybody says, 'Wow, you made this chair so you could play
golf.' I said, 'No, I made it so I could be more independent, and
be more functional, and get more things done.' And that's why I
made it. Golf became a byproduct.

     (Footage of Houston playing golf)

     Mr.  HOUSTON: (Voiceover) Whatever it is that I get out to
do and people say 'Man, that's amazing.'

     I say, 'You know, that's funny.  If I was an able-bodied
person, would you think that was amazing?  No.' I think if you
got the talent to do it, you just go do it.  But because I use a
wheelchair and do it, you think it's absolutely amazing.  Why is
that? Because I stepped beyond the bounds of what the perceptions
that you have.

     (Footage of Houston at golf course; Corinne Vieville;
flashing street sign; Talking Signs device)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) All across America, new inventions are
changing society's 'You can't do that' into the disabled's 'Yes,
I can.' If you're blind, you can't read street signs.  But in San
Francisco, Corinne Vieville can, because of an invention called
Talking Signs. The signs are transmitting messages...

     Talking Signs: Grove Street.  Wait.

     STAHL: (Voiceover) ...and she picks them up on a hand-held
receiver.

     Talking Signs: Walk sign.  Grove Street.

     (Footage of tractor; Ron Johnson; Johnson being lifted into
tractor)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) If you're a farmer in a wheelchair, you
can't get up into that tractor.  But in Illinois, Ron Johnson
can, thanks to a new invention...

     Mr.  RON JOHNSON: Feels like I'm going up.

     (Footage of Johnson being lifted into tractor)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) ...a motorized lift, mounted right on the
side.

     Mr.  JOHNSON: Well, there I am.  First time in over three
years.

     (Footage of Tim Cranmer)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) A blind person can't see when his coffee
cup is filling up.  But Tim Cranmer can, thanks to his own
invention...

     Mr.  TIM CRANMER: It's a Say When.

     (Footage of Cranmer with Stahl)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) ...the Say When.

     Mr.  CRANMER: It lets you know when to stop pouring.  So we
put this over the thing.

     STAHL: Uh-huh.

     Mr.  CRANMER: And then we pour.  (Beeping sound) There you
are.
     STAHL: Before you invented this...

     Mr.  CRANMER: Yeah?

     STAHL: ...how would you know when you had gone to the top?

     Mr.  CRANMER: You dip a pinky over the top, and you burn
your finger.

     (Footage of Cranmer; Cranmer with Stahl; Braille 'n Speak;
Cranmer using Braille 'n Speak)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Tim Cranmer, blind from the age of nine,
has come up with scores of inventions over the last 40 years.
Call him the Thomas Edison of devices for the blind.  His
crowning achievement is the Braille 'n Speak.

     Mr.  CRANMER: Open a file.

     Computerized Voice: (From Braille 'n Speak) Option zero,
one...

     STAHL: (Voiceover) It's a powerful--but very light, less
than a pound--portable computer with a Braille keyboard that
blind people carry with them everywhere.

     What have you stored in there?  This is something you use.
This is your own machine.

     Mr.  CRANMER: I use this every day, yes.  I have my database
in here, all the t--telephone numbers and addresses since 1976.

     (Footage of Cranmer with Stahl; Cranmer using Braille 'n
Speak)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) And his calendar, and a month's worth of
reading.  You could store a whole book in there, for instance?

     Mr.  CRANMER: Yes.  I could store a novel.  Right now, I
have the poetry of John Keats.  That's just temporary.  I'll
erase that one of these days, and replace it with "War and
Peace," or something.

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Anything he puts into the Braille 'N
Speak can be retrieved instantly, either in a computer-generated
voice...

     Mr.  CRANMER: I'll have it read that back.

     Computer Voice: (From Braille 'n Speak) My name is Lesley
Stahl.

     STAHL: (Voiceover) ...or, with this advanced model, in
Braille. These dots pop up and down on a display bar to form
Braille letters.
     Mr.  CRANMER: Now, you see, there is your name spelled,
L-E-S-L-E-Y, right there.

     (Footage of Millicent Williams using Braille 'n Speak in
class)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) From home, to the business world, to the
classroom, the Braille 'n Speak is erasing a lot of the 'You
can't do that's' for the blind.  Without it, Millicent Williams
would have a hard time keeping up with her classmates at Georgia
State University. With it, she's probably taking better notes
than anyone else.

     Mr.  CRANMER: (Voiceover) They just type away in class.

     STAHL: What?  And then they go back to their room...

     Mr.  CRANMER: Uh-huh.

     STAHL: ...and play it back?

     Mr.  CRANMER: They play it back.  They search for things, so
that they can listen to specific items.

     STAHL: This has to have made a...

     Mr.  CRANMER: That's--that's right.

     STAHL: ...an enormous difference...

     Mr.  CRANMER: An enormous difference.

     STAHL: ...to people in--in holding information.

     Mr.  CRANMER: I think it will be regarded as the most
significant technology in the 20th century for the blind.  That's
my feeling about it.

     (Footage of Cranmer; Ted Henter water-skiing)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) What Tim Cranmer has done with the
Braille 'n Speak is help blind people accomplish things society
never expected of them.  Ted Henter is another blind inventor
who's demolishing stereotypes. Water-skiing is just his hobby,
though he was world champion a few years back.  His breakthrough
invention is something called Jaws.

     Mr.  TED HENTER: Jaws is software that makes the computer
talk.

     (Footage of Henter with Stahl)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Ted was blinded 20 years ago in an auto
accident.

     What did you do before?

     Mr.  HENTER: Before I was blinded?

     STAHL: Yes.

     Mr.  HENTER: I was a motorcycle racer.

     (Vintage footage of Henter racing motorcycle; Henter)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Clearly, Ted Henter needed to find
something else to do.

     Mr.  HENTER: (Voiceover) I was a sighted kid; I grew up with
dreams.

     But once I was blinded, I--none of those were relevant
anymore. They--they w--they weren't going to work for me.  So I
had to think up new dreams.  So I had a few minutes of despair,
but I--I got over it real quick.  Ten minutes.  And I realized...

     STAHL: Ten minutes?  No.

     Mr.  HENTER: Yes.

     STAHL: Really?

     Mr.  HENTER: Ten minutes of despair.  Because then I
realized, well, there have been blind people around for--for
centuries.  And I knew that what happened to me was for my own
good.  I knew something good was gonna come out of it.

     (Footage of Henter using computer with Stahl watching)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) The good that came out of it was that Ted
began studying computers.  And before long, he developed software
that read computer text and turned it into speech.

     Computer Voice: (From Jaws program) I have several other
questions.

     (Footage of man using computer)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) With Jaws reading the computer screen,
suddenly blind people, with a 70 percent unemployment rate, could
compete for all kinds of jobs that used to be unthinkable.

     Ms.  HEATHER STUBBS: (On phone) FedEx.  Heather Stubbs
speaking, may I help you?

     (Footage of Heather Stubbs; Stubbs using Jaws program for
customer service call at FedEx)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) If you call FedEx, you might get a blind
customer service agent.

     Ms.  STUBBS: (On phone) Is this on a shipment that you're
about to make?

     STAHL: (Voiceover) You're in one ear of her headset asking
her to track a package.  The Jaws voice is in her other ear...

     Computer Voice: (From Jaws program) Nine-one-three...

     (Footage of computer screen)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) ...telling her what's on the computer
screen.

     Computer Voice: (From Jaws program) T-R-A-C-E-apostrophe...

     (Footage of FedEx employees)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) FedEx has about a dozen blind employees
working the phones using Jaws.

     Mr.  HENTER: You don't have to be limited by your blindness.
You can go out and do these things.  You can go to college.  You
can get a PhD.  You can get a job as a computer programmer, as a
software designer, as an attorney.

     (Footage of computer screen utilizing Windows)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Ted's biggest challenge has been Windows
with all those icons and graphics.  It's made computers much
easier for most people, but how in the world can a blind person
point and click?

     Mr.  HENTER: Windows was very, very difficult.  When--when
Windows came along and--and companies started switching to it,
blind people were losing their jobs.  And we were getting calls
all the time, that 'Hey, if you don't come out with a Windows
product soon, I'm gonna lose my job.' And a lot of people did.

     STAHL: What you're saying is that--that when the computer
does something to make it easier for me, it's a disaster for
blind people. I mean, the very progress that helps me hurts you.

     Mr.  HENTER: In many cases, yeah.  And you have all these
people that are creating vision-oriented systems, sight-oriented,
then we have to come along and--and make it work for someone who
can't see.

     (Footage of Henter; computer screen; man using computer)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Ted figured out a way to make Windows
work for blind people.  Now he's making the Internet accessible.
But every day, he and his team of programmers have to overcome
new obstacles the sighted computer world throws their way.

     How often do you have to change your software 'cause there's
a new problem out there?

     Mr.  HENTER: We--we change it weekly.

     STAHL: Weekly?

     Mr.  HENTER: Al--almost daily, depending on the week.  So
we're constantly working on it.

     (Footage of Henter's employees)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) The 'we' includes 20 other blind
employees.

     Unidentified Man #1: Open a start menu.

     STAHL: (Voiceover) So if you're a blind customer using Jaws,
and you have a question, you're likely to get a blind technical
support guy to answer it.

     Unidentified Man #2: We just wanna really stay on fixing
problems.

     STAHL: If you were to choose a word to describe what this
does to help a blind person, or what your goal is, what would it
be?

     Mr.  HENTER: I think 'equality' is a good word.

     (Footage of Marilyn Hamilton playing tennis)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Equality is also what Marilyn Hamilton is
after.  She became a tennis champion only after she was
paralyzed. It happened in a hang-gliding accident 20 years ago.

     And they give you a wheelchair.  What do they give you?

     Ms.  MARILYN HAMILTON: Totally non-adjustable, stainless
steel. Looked sick.  Made me feel sick, hard to maneuver.  And I
said, wait a minute. We have more technology--seamless drawn
aluminum tube, fun colors--in these hang-gliders than what I'm
supposed to be using for my legs.  And it just didn't compute.

     (Footage of Hamilton with Stahl; wheelchairs being
manufactured; Stahl holding up a wheelchair)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) So Marilyn co-founded a company called
Quickie and revolutionized the wheelchair business with a line of
light, maneuverable, colorful chairs and sports chairs for
everything from basketball to skiing to road racing.

     This doesn't weigh anything.

     (Footage of wheelchair)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) There's just one problem with Quickies:
They're expensive.

     Ms.  HAMILTON: Technology is here and we want to innovate it
and improve people's lives, but if we can't do that because no
one can purchase it, what good does it do?

     (Footage of Hamilton with Stahl; wheelchairs)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Marilyn Hamilton is stating a fundamental
fact about disabled people: Most of them are poor.  And in most
cases, medical insurance will pay for only the cheapest
wheelchair, one that meets the definition of being a, quote,
"medical necessity."

     Ms.  HAMILTON: It is the--the least expensive product that
will allow you to get around.

     STAHL: But medical necessity is all that Medicare, for
instance, and most insurance companies, will pay for?

     Ms.  HAMILTON: Correct.

     (Footage of Hamilton; Houston's HiRider; Rehabilitation
Research and Development Center; electronic hand making hand
signs; paper displaying hand signals; man demonstrating how the
electronic hands works to Stahl)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) So while Medicare might pay a few hundred
dollars for a clunky steel wheelchair, it's almost impossible to
get them to pay $2,200--the price tag on the chair Marilyn says
gets her where she wants to go.  The same goes for Tom Houston's
HiRider. Medicare will rarely pay even a fraction of the $17,000
price tag, even though he says standing up is actually better for
your health. Money is why a lot of promising inventions never
even reach the market, like this electronic hand, developed by
the Veterans Administration, for people who are both deaf and
blind, like Helen Keller.

     If I were a deaf-blind person who communicated...

     Unidentified Man #3: Right.

     STAHL: ...I would put my hand on top like that, right?

     Man #3: Right.

     (Footage of man demonstrating how the electronic hand works)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) The hand is hooked up to a computer, and
does what a computer printer does, except that whatever someone
types, comes out not on paper, but as hand movements.

     Man #3: Start with an A-B-C-D-E-F-G...

     STAHL: (Voiceover) But the VA can't find a company willing
to manufacture the hand--not enough profit potential, not enough
customers.  Insurance won't pay.

     Man #3: ...W-X-Y-Z.

     (Footage of Hamilton; Henter using computer; Cranmer using
Braille 'n Speak)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Here's an exercise: Try putting a dollar
value on some everyday givens of life.  What's it worth to be
able to go where you want when you want?  Or surf the Net?  Or
have Keats at your fingertips?

     Mr.  CRANMER: It says, 'To swell the gourd, and pump the
hazel.'

     (Footage of Houston making a putt, being congratulated by
friends)

     STAHL: (Voiceover) Or sink a putt?

     Unidentified Man #4: That's my partner.

     (Announcements)

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