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                            THE BLIND NEWS DIGEST

                                 Issue # 1067

                           Tuesday, July 26, 1994

Today's Topics:


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                          blind for unknown reasons
                         Social security help needed
                        digital watches for the blind
                       Identify Dollars for the Blind
                       what's wrong with this picture?
                Looking for a VCR Programmer for Blind Person
                      Re: Braille font (for Macintosh)
                            Re: Blind Web Access


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Subject: blind for unknown reasons
From: Hunter=Kim%LSB%AUL@AUL.au.af.mil (Kim Hunter)

This is the first time I have replied to something on this (or any) mail
list, so if I'm not doing it right please let me know.

This is to the person about Blind without cause.  My father had those same
symptoms, he could only see out the edges.  He was diagnosed as having
Macular Degeneration.  He went to the Retina Center in Baltimore MD.  He was
put in part of a study for a new drug, went through an operation where they
put the new drug (gas) behind his eye.  It has been only about a month or
little more but he thinks he can see a little better than before the
operation.  There is still blood behind his eye, but during the operation
they cleaned most of it out.  Don't know if this will help, but possible you
can get an appointment at the Center in Baltimore.
kim




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Subject: Social security help needed
From: RASST41@vms.cis.pitt.edu


    Can anyone tell me why Social Security is so hard to acquire? Any
information that will help overturn a refusal by this agency for a
visually impaired college student that can not work and attend college
(in fact I'm going to college so that I can become gainfully employed
}{due to this vision problem and other resulting health problems})

will be greatly appreciated.


   Send to rasst41@vms.con.pit.edu








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Subject: digital watches for the blind
From: dashiell@nadc.navy.mil (Jude DaShiell)


radio shack watches like seiko don't have everything
talking like the date if you want it and
the user interface was enough to make me start drinking again.
Also after all of that the watch strap which in my case is
made of metal broke under normal use.  So i've decided not to
have it repaired and put back into use.

jude <dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil>




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Subject: Identify Dollars for the Blind
From: bobz@truevision.com (Bob Zigon)
Organization: Truevision, Inc

Hi there,

I have an aunt that is going blind. I just found out that one of
the problems she has now that she is losing her sight is that she
can not identify dollar bills. I am looking for a small, hand held
device that a person could slide a $1, $5, $10, etc through and the
device would say "One Dollar Bill", "Five Dollar Bill", etc. My
thought is that the device would be about 1/2 the size of a desktop
mouse and have a speaker on the side.

Has anyone seen such a device? Where can I find it?

Bob Zigon
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Zigon
Sr. Software Engineer  'Phenomenal cosmic power ...
Truevision, Inc.            and an itty-bitty place to live!"   (Aladdin)
----------------------------------------------------------------




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Subject: what's wrong with this picture?
From: dashiell@nadc.navy.mil (Jude DaShiell)


I had already posted my opinion on the
services available from Royal National Institute For The Blind earlier.
To go over this one more time, when I was in college and needed
better than what r.f.b. can provide
specifically in statistics I borrowed books from r.n.i.b.
They were not the current edition of what the
rest of the class was using, but my stats professor helped
me pick them out and he told me that
those books were at least as good as everyone else was using.
I believe I got a b and an a for those two semesters and
I credit those marks to avoiding r.f.b.
Isn't it wonderful?  Congress decides not to fully fund
the production of braille to the level done in England.
So it makes it necessary for those in the know about the institute to borrow
books and for those that don't you either rely on r.f.b. and risk failing
a course even if the book is available in time or going for one of those
megabucks reading machines.  Naturally congress isn't going to fund reading
machine purchases either so we get it from both the public and
private sectors all at the same time.  That's why i love living in america
so much.  Fortunately this type of activity doesn't cause aids.

jude <dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil>




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Subject: Looking for a VCR Programmer for Blind Person
From: mmcleod@clark.net (Mark McLeod)
Organization: Clark Internet Services, Inc., Ellicott City, MD USA

     I have a blind friend who is completely blind and who wants to
use her VCR.  She has seen the commercials for a product that allows
you to program a VCR by voice, but that item has an LCD display that
you must use to confirm that you have set the thing properly.  She
needs one that would confirm the settings audibly.
     She does not have access to the Internet at this time, and has
asked me to post this for her.  If you have any ideas about this,
please send them to me and I will forward them to her.

--
"I believe OS/2...to be the most important OS...of all time"
-- Bill Gates, 1987

Mark McLeod (mmcleod@ckark.net)




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Subject: Re: Braille font (for Macintosh)
From: appledsg@aol.com (AppleDSG)
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)

In article <32727@handicap.news>, kkoehn@sfu.ca (Kaari David Koehn)
writes:

Has anyone ever heard of a Braille font for the Macintosh
computer? This might work well with the defunct InTouch.
If not, maybe it's up to me to handcarve one.

PS. I wonder what the Braille literacy rate is among the blind.
I heard 10% qouted once.

____
Kaari Koehn
kkoehn@sfu.ca

-------------------------------------------
Yes, there is a public domain braille font for the Macintosh. It's
available on AppleLink (on the Empower Bulletin Board), on America Online
(in the Assistive Technology forum; keyword: DIS), and on eWorld (on The
Disability Connection; shortcut: dis).

Regards,

Peter Green
Worldwide Disability Solutions Group
Apple Computer, Inc.




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Subject: Re: Blind Web Access
From: kford@netcom.com (Kelly Ford)
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)

John Mattioli (mattioli@panix.com) wrote:

:       I hear people talk about www as if it's an actual piece of
: software, but I've never seen a piece of software actually called www.

There is software called WWW.  It is a line-oriented version of a WWW
browser that was developed by the same people who created the first
graphical browsers.

You can also, as I mentioned in another note, use a DOS-based application
called DOS LYNX on your PC if you have some way of getting connected to
the internet such that you have your own IP number.  Typically this will
be with either a SLIP connection over a modem or some kind of high speed
connection.  DOSLYNX is available from the University of Kansas, thsame
place you can get the Unix LYNX program.

Kelly Ford

--
                                             kford@netcom.com




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                 End of Issue # 1067 of the Blind News Digest

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