¶   MANCHESTER, S.D. (AP) _ You can't buy gas or groceries in Manchester.

There's no mayor or city council. And if you're just aching for a Big Mac, 
keep on truckin'.
¶   But if you're in the market for software that makes computers more 
accessible to the blind, well, that's a different story.
¶   A wide spot off U.S. Highway 14 in rural eastern South Dakota may
seem 
an unlikely spot for a company that markets computer products to hundreds 
of folks from Malta to Manitoba. But nobody bothered to mention that to 
Vernon Ferguson and his wife, Pat.
¶   Manchester-based Ferguson Enterprises recently released the latest 
version of SCANACAN, a software program designed to let the blind hear 
information on tens of thousands of items that have bar codes.
¶   A scanner reads the 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.
¶   Pat demonstrates with a bottle.
¶   "Antacid chew tabs," a speaker attached to the computer coolly
enunciates.
¶   "Cream chick," it says when she waves a can in front of the scanner's

glowing red eye. The voice then spells out the directions to fix a hot bowl

of soup.
¶   Pat, who is blind, said the program helps her keep track of her stock

of groceries. 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
today," 
Pat said.
¶   The first version of the program, released earlier this year, had a 
database with bar codes for about 30,000 grocery store items. A supermarket

chain provided the codes to the Fergusons at no cost, and Vernon used a 
conversion program to enter them so that each code did not have to be 
entered manually.
¶   The latest version _ SCANACAN Plus _ has that database and allows 
customers to create more databases. It holds up to 2 billion bar codes, 
though that number may be limited by the memory available on the computer, 
Vernon said. The idea is to let customers catalog a variety of household 
items _ anything with a bar code.
¶   "SCANACAN is a home management system," Pat said.
¶   Alburnie Wright, of Morrisville, Pa., uses the software to label 
compact discs, making his work as a disc jockey easier. That way there's no

chance he will play Barbra Streisand's "Evergreen" when he meant to play 
Stevie Wonder's "Superstition."
¶   Wright also uses the program to label his clothes. He sews on a bar 
code that has not been assigned to a product yet and inputs a description 
of the article of clothing, including its color. Then when it's time to get

dressed, he can avoid mixing pinstripes and paisleys.
¶   The blind can use Braille coding for the same purpose, but Wright
says 
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.
¶   The program has done wonders for him in the month since he bought it,

Wright said.
¶   "It's totally changed my whole life," he said. "You can use it for so

much."
¶   He predicts it will become standard equipment for the blind.
¶   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 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 people, plus assorted coyotes, deer, jackrabbits and other critters.
¶   "We don't get in each other's way, that's for sure," Vernon said.
¶   Neither he nor Pat claims Manchester is South Dakota's answer to 
Silicon Valley. Then again, they have had their taste of West Coast living 
and are glad to be enjoying peace and quiet again.
¶   Vernon, 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.
¶   The Los Angeles area had its good points, he said, but there was a 
nagging fear of becoming a victim of violent crime. Lines were long, too, 
and housing costs kept rising.
¶   Finally, in 1983, the Fergusons decided to move to Manchester. Vernon

still had plenty of family ties. Pat, an Oregon native who grew up in 
good-size towns, was nevertheless eager to taste life in rural South
Dakota.
¶   "I was the one who wanted to move back here," she said, though the
idea 
also had plenty of appeal to her husband.
¶   It was in Manchester that the couple went into the computer business 
full time. Vernon had built a talking computer in 1979 so his wife could 
help out with their work of producing labels for commercial and private 
use. Pat ties their current work back to those roots.
¶   "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."
¶   Today, Vernon does the programming and Pat handles customer orders
and 
other phone and Internet duties. Their business is connected to their home,

so they don't have to worry about commuting during South Dakota winters.
¶   Computer gizmos and gadgets are not the only products they handle.
¶   For those of the low-tech persuasion, they also have a room stocked 
with lawn and garden equipment and parts. People come from as far as Huron 
and Howard, both about a half-hour away, for Vernon's lawn mower expertise.
¶   Vernon noted the seasonal quality of the couple's work. Warm weather 
keeps things hopping on the lawn-and-garden side.
¶   "When the snow flies, things pick up fast," he said of the software 
business. "Everybody gets inside and starts playing with computers."


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