tim Cranmer is the dean of the information access movement.  He developed
the Cramner abacus for the blind in the 1960s.  His work followed with
efforts for greater research into synthetic speech applications in the
1960s and 1970s.  His leadership helped the National Federation of the
Blind sponsor Ray Kurtzweil in developing his famous reading machine in
1976.  It intergrated the new speech technology with tthe even newer ocr
technology into a useful product.  Such efforts paved the way for the
computer access of the 1980s.  He is an inspiration to me and a mentor to
many, such as Dean Blazie, who have gone on to make a significant impact
in opening information access for tens of thousands of blind people.  tim
and I work together on the techwatch comittee of the national Council on
Disability, a federal agency.  It has been a deep learning and humbeling
experience to work with a man of such long commitment, passion, and
understanding of information access.  A few days ago tim wrote about what
is going on in his home state of Kentucky with the vicug there.  I can't
wait to read this with my fingers in the newsletter of the National
Association to Promote the Use of Braille.

kelly

From: t v Cranmer <[log in to unmask]>

The following was written for a NAPUB newsletter and mailed to its editor
Warren Figueiredo.
Tim Cranmer
>insert
Warren,
Here is a little piece for the NAPUB newsletter
Tim Cranmer

What to do?
Kentucky is noted for its visionary pursuit of technology, or so we
tell ourselves.  Still, we are frequently frustrated by the slow
pace of progress in the never ending game of catch-up we are
playing to bring blind people into the computer age.

We all agree here that computers are very useful to the blind,
probably even more than to sighted people, If only we can overcome
the barriers of acquisition of the necessary equipment and then
learning the access technology-- then we can come to grips with the
labyrinth of Windows menus and the completely non-intuitive process
of navigation of the mouse pointer using only the keyboard.

Some times this looks like a chicken and egg problem, and we aren't
even farmers.

So, what to do?

The state agency can help; they want to.  Trouble is, the blind
counselors don't know much about computers and the sighted
counselors don't know much about computers or blindness.  When they
"run" their computers, they click their mouse at the rate of five
clicks per second for several minutes till they get something to
work, then don't remember how they got there.  So, both the blind
and sighted need help.

We talk about these problems all of the time.  It took a while to
learn that we had to take some responsibility for our kind and stop
ranting and raving and do some things that would address the
problems.

Here are a few of the things we are trying.  None are perfect, but
all are working to some degree.

We formed a Computer Users Division of NFBK.  I was it's first
president, and the only officer with an e-mail address.  Three
years later, Jenny Tyree is president and all of the board of
directors and well over 90 per cent of its members are online.

Each year we raffle a state-of-the-art multi-media computer, giving
a free ticket to everyone attending the convention and selling
tickets for a dollar a piece to those wishing to increase their
chance of winning the computer.  We don't make any money on the
raffle, and didn't think we would.  We did get a lot of interest
and discussion, at the division luncheon and in the hallways.
Everybody attending the convention or banquet got a shot in their
ear about the importance of computers to blind people.

We now have a growing list of mentors.  These are blind guys that
have caught the enthusiasm for using a computer and a zeal for
helping others to break in to the high tech world, at an
appropriate level.

Our WEB site has been written, by a member who didn't have a
computer or any interest in one, when we started the CUD division.
The mentor list is on the WEB site along with the e-mail addresses
of every blind Kentuckyian.  The WEB page is new.  Very new, just
born last month, still being stuffed with URL's relating to
blindness, vendors etc.  Our WEB master--who likes to tell people
that he is self taught--is David Raynes [log in to unmask]  He will
open the door to the public in a few weeks, as soon as President
Tyree feels that it is ready to go.  President Tyree got her e-mail
address just a few months ago.

We had another meeting Friday night.  And what did we talk about?
What to do about the need for getting equipment and training for
blind Kentuckians.