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>Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 21:25:23 -0600
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>From: Kathy Blackburn <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Newspaper Article: Scanner helps Blind Manage Life
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>+== acb-l Message from Kathy Blackburn <[log in to unmask]> ==+
>Austin American Statesman: Business
>_____
>business/tech
> Monday, December 20
>
>Scanner Helps Blind Manage Life
>By Steven Barrett
> Associated Press
> Monday, December 20, 1999
>
> Telling his Barbra Streisand apart from his Stevie Wonder is a whole lot
>easier these days for disc jockey Alburnie Wright.
> Wright, who is blind, labeled his compact discs using software that works
>with a bar code scanner to read aloud descriptions of tens of thousands of
>items from CDs to soup cans.
> Now there's no chance he will play Streisand's "Evergreen" when he meant
>to play Wonder's "Superstition."
> The Morrisville, Pa., man also uses the program, called SCANACAN, to
>label his clothes. He sews on a bar code and inputs a description of the
>article of clothing, including its color. Then when it's time to get
>dressed, he can avoid mixing plaids and paisleys.
> SCANACAN was developed by a Manchester, S.D., couple whose Ferguson
>Enterprises develops products to assist the blind.
> Pat Ferguson, who is blind, said the program helps her keep track of her
>pantry's inventory. After she uses an item, she tells the computer she has
>one fewer of that particular item on hand. That also helps when it comes
>time to make a grocery list, because it means she does not have to rack her
>brain trying to remember whether she fixed corn or beans for dinner a week
>ago.
> "Computers have made a world of difference in our accessibility," she said.
> A scanner reads the bar code and a synthesized voice provides information
>the user requests -- a simple description of the product or, in the case of
>food, how to prepare it.
> She demonstrates with a bottle.
> "Antacid chew tabs," a speaker attached to the computer flatly enunciates.
> "Cream chick," it says when she waves another can in front of the
>scanner's glowing red eye. The voice then spells out the directions to fix
>a hot bowl of soup.
> SCANACAN costs $600. The price includes a bar code scanner and the
>software package, which has a database with bar codes for about 30,000
>grocery items. A supermarket chain provided the codes to the Fergusons at
>no cost.
> The program allows users to create more databases and will hold up to 2
>billion bar codes, though that number may be limited by the memory
>available on the computer, Pat's husband, Vernon, said.
> "SCANACAN is a home management system," Pat Ferguson said.
> The blind can use Braille coding for the same purpose, but Wright, the
>Pennsylvania disc jockey, said that's far more cumbersome. SCANACAN also
>can benefit newly blind people who are not fluent in Braille or people
>whose fingers have lost the sensitivity needed to read Braille, he said.
> Wright said the program has done wonders for him in the month since he
>bought it.
> "It's totally changed my whole life," he said. "You can use it for so much."
> For now, customers must manually enter descriptions of products whose
>codes are not already in the program. But the Fergusons are seeking
>databases from more manufacturers to expand the software's usefulness.
> "We're always trying to get more databases," Pat Ferguson said. "We're
>not going to charge for the databases as long as we're not charged for them."
> The Fergusons rely on catalog and Internet sales for the bulk of their
>business. That's probably for the best because the population of Manchester
>is 10.
> Ferguson, a native of Manchester, met his wife while working in
>California in the late '70s. He worked for a telephone company and
>custom-built computers on the side.
> In 1983, the Fergusons decided to move to Manchester and it was there
>that the couple went into the computer business full time. Ferguson had
>built a talking computer in 1979 so his wife could help out with their work
>of producing labels for commercial and private use.
> Today, Ferguson does the programming and Pat Ferguson handles customer
>orders and other phone and Internet duties for the home-based business.
> "In the late '70s and early '80s, there weren't that many manufacturers
>of adaptive equipment for computers," she said. "We were not really into
>that at that time, but that is something we wanted to do. Our goal was to
>help blind people succeed."
>presented by -Link-The Austin American-Statesman and -Link-Austin360.com
>_____
>
>All rights reserved. -Link-© Copyright 1999
>
>
>************************************************************
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