Cain Marko
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Inspirational read...
http://www.e-accessibility.com/news.html
08: BIONIC BLISS
by Patricia 'Trout' Livingstone.
I was born with Usher's Syndrome, a combination of blindness and deafness. While my eye disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa, deteriorated, so did my residual hearing loss. The struggle of reading my computer monitor with the aid of magnification became increasingly obscure and impossible.
When my ability to use my computer waned because of my diminished sight and hearing, so did my desire to write and communicate, because I felt the isolation, the void of sight and hearing, a most oppressive and daunting weight in my connection with the world. At the time, I could not rely on audio aids, nor could I rely on visual aids in efforts to write at my computer. The despair and frustration at the closing of my sight and hearing were undeniably exhausting. Yet, with a smattering knowledge of Braille, I knew it was time to learn more Braille as a first step toward connecting with literature. I learned the basic alphabet in Braille, and in sign language, finger spelling. I never thought I would need Braille since I was able to use a small portion of my sight in one eye for lip reading, relying on readers, and reading large print. I suppose I thought I would never lose the rest of my sight and hearing. I was wrong.
I began teaching myself Braille by reading 'To the lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf in Braille, though it took me six months to read the three volumes since I was unfamiliar with many Braille contractions. I focused on the contractions and punctuations throughout the book. I read very slowly, with intermittent pauses to each word and punctuation. I tried to unravel and work through each sentence. It was probably the longest time I have spent reading a novel. No doubt, the experience of reading and learning, in my chosen fashion, was fraught with headaches and anxiety. Yet my effort to learn to read and learn Braille was unwittingly indispensable: I had no idea how effective and powerful the offerings of Braille could be in my life.
After completing 'To the Lighthouse', I ordered another book with much anticipation and curiosity. My initial dislike of Braille diminished as I began to devour novel after novel, reading voraciously and with delight. Though, many books on my list of requests were unavailable in Braille catalogues of books listings, over two thousand books are available at Braille libraries: an ample selection of books to help me stay in practice and enjoy reading. Reading filled the silence I'd previously experienced.
One day, I was introduced to a 'Braille Display', a keyboard attached to my computer allowing me to read forty or fifty characters in Braille format. With this ingenious tool, I am able to write and read anything displayed in computer programs such as Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer or Outlook Express. Thanks to computer Braille training instructor Peter Tighe from the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Massachusetts (http://www.carroll.org), I have been introduced to a world of new technology, to new modes of communication, and to using the Braille display along with keystrokes which take the place of the mouse relied on by most sighted users.
It is astonishing how much information scurries quickly by my fingertips, dots that connect me to people, to the world news online, to life! Through hard work with a good computer Braille training specialist, and a lot of patience, the reality of communication continues to flourish and augment the window of the world to me.
While I was in the initial process of learning how to use my Braille display and its copious new features and techniques, I stepped into another new technological phenomena: I choose to have a cochlear implant. My cochlear implant is essentially a 'bionic ear'. I am a novice at being an 'implantee'; as time goes on, I hear new sounds. I hear birds chirping, a dripping tap (or 'faucet', as we say in the States), and winds gusting through leaves on a tree . . .
All this from a gift of technology. I am able to use a telephone, something I like very much. The bliss of hearing is astounding. There is light in the world that once seemed utterly dark and blatantly morose by the gulf of loneliness caused by the loss of hearing and sight.
It is without doubt that technology, in all its genius, will bedazzle the medical, educational, and assistive aid fields. There is reason to have faith that the impossible will become a possibility. Will technology one day succeed in making a 'bionic retina'? Will technology make television viewing possible in Braille? Will I become the next bionic woman? All I know is that when I hear the birds singing and feel the Braille dots as I write these words, I am grateful and thankful.
http://www.e-accessibility.com/news.html
08: BIONIC BLISS
by Patricia 'Trout' Livingstone.
I was born with Usher's Syndrome, a combination of blindness and deafness. While my eye disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa, deteriorated, so did my residual hearing loss. The struggle of reading my computer monitor with the aid of magnification became increasingly obscure and impossible.
When my ability to use my computer waned because of my diminished sight and hearing, so did my desire to write and communicate, because I felt the isolation, the void of sight and hearing, a most oppressive and daunting weight in my connection with the world. At the time, I could not rely on audio aids, nor could I rely on visual aids in efforts to write at my computer. The despair and frustration at the closing of my sight and hearing were undeniably exhausting. Yet, with a smattering knowledge of Braille, I knew it was time to learn more Braille as a first step toward connecting with literature. I learned the basic alphabet in Braille, and in sign language, finger spelling. I never thought I would need Braille since I was able to use a small portion of my sight in one eye for lip reading, relying on readers, and reading large print. I suppose I thought I would never lose the rest of my sight and hearing. I was wrong.
I began teaching myself Braille by reading 'To the lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf in Braille, though it took me six months to read the three volumes since I was unfamiliar with many Braille contractions. I focused on the contractions and punctuations throughout the book. I read very slowly, with intermittent pauses to each word and punctuation. I tried to unravel and work through each sentence. It was probably the longest time I have spent reading a novel. No doubt, the experience of reading and learning, in my chosen fashion, was fraught with headaches and anxiety. Yet my effort to learn to read and learn Braille was unwittingly indispensable: I had no idea how effective and powerful the offerings of Braille could be in my life.
After completing 'To the Lighthouse', I ordered another book with much anticipation and curiosity. My initial dislike of Braille diminished as I began to devour novel after novel, reading voraciously and with delight. Though, many books on my list of requests were unavailable in Braille catalogues of books listings, over two thousand books are available at Braille libraries: an ample selection of books to help me stay in practice and enjoy reading. Reading filled the silence I'd previously experienced.
One day, I was introduced to a 'Braille Display', a keyboard attached to my computer allowing me to read forty or fifty characters in Braille format. With this ingenious tool, I am able to write and read anything displayed in computer programs such as Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer or Outlook Express. Thanks to computer Braille training instructor Peter Tighe from the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, Massachusetts (http://www.carroll.org), I have been introduced to a world of new technology, to new modes of communication, and to using the Braille display along with keystrokes which take the place of the mouse relied on by most sighted users.
It is astonishing how much information scurries quickly by my fingertips, dots that connect me to people, to the world news online, to life! Through hard work with a good computer Braille training specialist, and a lot of patience, the reality of communication continues to flourish and augment the window of the world to me.
While I was in the initial process of learning how to use my Braille display and its copious new features and techniques, I stepped into another new technological phenomena: I choose to have a cochlear implant. My cochlear implant is essentially a 'bionic ear'. I am a novice at being an 'implantee'; as time goes on, I hear new sounds. I hear birds chirping, a dripping tap (or 'faucet', as we say in the States), and winds gusting through leaves on a tree . . .
All this from a gift of technology. I am able to use a telephone, something I like very much. The bliss of hearing is astounding. There is light in the world that once seemed utterly dark and blatantly morose by the gulf of loneliness caused by the loss of hearing and sight.
It is without doubt that technology, in all its genius, will bedazzle the medical, educational, and assistive aid fields. There is reason to have faith that the impossible will become a possibility. Will technology one day succeed in making a 'bionic retina'? Will technology make television viewing possible in Braille? Will I become the next bionic woman? All I know is that when I hear the birds singing and feel the Braille dots as I write these words, I am grateful and thankful.
YOU WHAT?! I'm glad that you're okay now and seeing things. Whew. Are you still blind in one eye now?
)
.... dr said.. its normal for catracts.. ahh!
I thought you said Daredevil sucked!