How many deafblind AD'ers are out there?

LuciaDisturbed said:
33 years is a really long time. Is the original Perkins made out of metal? Is it heavy? I can't really tell if it is metal from the picture cause the quality of the picture is grainy.

Both my TTYs did not even last 6 years. Wish they lasted longer like your Perkins. :(
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yes. the original perkins is made entirely out of metal (with the exception of the 6 dot keys, space bar, carriage return and rollers which are made of hard plastic) and it is *very* heavy. the original perkins that i have is gray, but now they've come out with braillers that are different colors like blue and green. i think the colored braillers were designed to mark the anniversary of the perkins school for the blind.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
Also probably because the deafblind equipment seems more complicated to make, therefore it costs more to manufacture these products, right? At least it looks that way to me. Deaf-related technology seem very simple compared to deafblind technology.
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that's true especially when you think about devices like the telebraille which not only require a print tty, but also a braille display and keyboard for input and output.
 
Hear Again said:
when i was in blind rehab back in the early 90s, we used to use a program called vos (verbal operating system). it was a sh*tty screen reader that used to constantly get stuck on a word every time you booted up the computer. :mad2:
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Sounds like it was a huge pain in the ass to use!
 
Hear Again said:
since my diagnosis of cts, i'm seriously considering the use of an electric one-handed perkins brailler. the only problem is finding someone who will pay for it. :(
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Hear Again, wouldn't DVR pay for one for you? Or are they holding out on you because you still have the original Perkins? Or because it is simply too expensive?
 
Hear Again said:
i couldn't agree with your post more, sabs! :)

as for a blind person trying to read something they can't see (or have significant difficulty seeing), you'd be surprised how many vision teachers emphasize the use of residual vision to the extent that a legally blind person experiences headaches and must hold the material they are reading inches from their face. i think that's ridiculous. i wish some of these vision teachers could look through the eyes of their legally blind students so they would have a better appreciation of how difficult and inconsistent it is to rely on poor vision.
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That's stupid, forcing them to rely on vision only even if there is braille and other blind technology available. It would save a lot of headaches and eyestrain. I had a blind friend that didn't use braille, and she would read material less than an inch from her eyes, even with the strongest glasses available. I thought, "ouch, that would hurt my eyes to have reading materials so close to my eyes". I haven't seen her in years, though.
 
sequoias said:
Since there isn't much demand to make products for blind people, so they make them really slow and they charge a lot for it hence the quality control is better. If they make so many things, quality control generally goes down.
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That makes sense.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
That's stupid, forcing them to rely on vision only even if there is braille and other blind technology available. It would save a lot of headaches and eyestrain. I had a blind friend that didn't use braille, and she would read material less than an inch from her eyes, even with the strongest glasses available. I thought, "ouch, that would hurt my eyes to have reading materials so close to my eyes". I haven't seen her in years, though.
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yeah. that's a common complaint of low vision and legally blind people -- especially college students who spend hours slaving over a book trying to read chapters on time in dim or insufficient lighting. i have a friend who had 20/200 vision and wore strong glasses. she also held material inches from her face and would experience severe headaches, eyestrain, neck, shoulder and back pain all because she was never taught how to read braille. :(
 
Hear Again said:
yeah. that's a common complaint of low vision and legally blind people -- especially college students who spend hours slaving over a book trying to read chapters on time in dim or insufficient lighting. i have a friend who had 20/200 vision and wore strong glasses. she also held material inches from her face and would experience severe headaches, eyestrain, neck, shoulder and back pain all because she was never taught how to read braille. :(
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yup, even when you have good services, but you get an assignment for a book report and theres no time to hire a reader, or get it on tape, i had tons of vision teachers tell me i was a "sighted child" and would be able to drive. uhhh, not so much, i rely heavily on a CCTV, and the reading support of friends, classmates, and family. It is wrong to force legally blind children to use residual vision, if i had had braille earlier i would be using it in my everyday college life.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
Hear Again, wouldn't DVR pay for one for you? Or are they holding out on you because you still have the original Perkins? Or because it is simply too expensive?
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i really don't think vr would pay for an electric perkins because they've paid for quite a bit already. for instance, they paid for two braille displays (a powerbraille 40 and a braille star 40), two screen readers (jaws and window-eyes), two comtek fm systems (a 72 MHz system and a 216 MHz system after the receiver on the first fm system stopped working), cost to attend an aadb (american association of the deafblind) convention, training in blind rehab, telebraille III, braille 'n speak (when i still had enough hearing to use one), braillenote with additional gps software, alertmaster 6000, training at my local deafblind center, additional training in tactile sign and tactile terps/braille realtime captioning/textbooks for school. i think i'm going to contact the lion's club and see if they'll cover the cost for me.
 
typeingtornado19 said:
yup, even when you have good services, but you get an assignment for a book report and theres no time to hire a reader, or get it on tape, i had tons of vision teachers tell me i was a "sighted child" and would be able to drive. uhhh, not so much, i rely heavily on a CCTV, and the reading support of friends, classmates, and family. It is wrong to force legally blind children to use residual vision, if i had had braille earlier i would be using it in my everyday college life.
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have you ever thought about taking a course in speed reading (braille) at hadley?
 
typeingtornado19 said:
yup, even when you have good services, but you get an assignment for a book report and theres no time to hire a reader, or get it on tape, i had tons of vision teachers tell me i was a "sighted child" and would be able to drive. uhhh, not so much, i rely heavily on a CCTV, and the reading support of friends, classmates, and family. It is wrong to force legally blind children to use residual vision, if i had had braille earlier i would be using it in my everyday college life.
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Able to drive? WTF? Forgive me for doubting your ability to see well enough to drive, but if you're legally blind, how the hell do you drive safely? If you can't drive safely, then why were your vision teachers telling you you would be able to drive? Weren't they endangering your safety by telling you that? Or, were your vision much better when you were younger? I'm just trying to understand. I've just NEVER have seen a legally blind person drive. I hope I am not insulting you or being rude. If I am, feel free to tell me off. I apologize in advance if I was being insulting or being rude.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
Able to drive? WTF? Forgive me for doubting your ability to see well enough to drive, but if you're legally blind, how the hell do you drive safely? If you can't drive safely, then why were your vision teachers telling you you would be able to drive? Weren't they endangering your safety by telling you that? Or, were your vision much better when you were younger? I'm just trying to understand. I've just NEVER have seen a legally blind person drive. I hope I am not insulting you or being rude. If I am, feel free to tell me off. I apologize in advance if I was being insulting or being rude.
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its all good, no, i never had eanough vision to even try to drive. i didnt even attempt it.
 
Hear Again said:
i really don't think vr would pay for an electric perkins because they've paid for quite a bit already. for instance, they paid for two braille displays (a powerbraille 40 and a braille star 40), two screen readers (jaws and window-eyes), two comtek fm systems (a 72 MHz system and a 216 MHz system after the receiver on the first fm system stopped working), cost to attend an aadb (american association of the deafblind) convention, training in blind rehab, telebraille III, braille 'n speak (when i still had enough hearing to use one), braillenote with additional gps software, alertmaster 6000, training at my local deafblind center, additional training in tactile sign and tactile terps/braille realtime captioning/textbooks for school. i think i'm going to contact the lion's club and see if they'll cover the cost for me.
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Wow. :shock: DVR has provided a LOT for you. The most DVR has provided me back in Milwaukee was a TTY, AlertMaster 5000, and a semester at a university in Minnesota, and books for that semester, and a roundtrip bus ticket to Minnesota so I could attend the college orientation there. I've had to take care of everything else. But I guess, since I'm not blind, I didn't need a lot of things.

It can't hurt to ask VR, and if they won't or can't, I hope the Lion's Club is willing to cover the cost for you. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you! :)
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
Wow. :shock: DVR has provided a LOT for you. The most DVR has provided me back in Milwaukee was a TTY, AlertMaster 5000, and a semester at a university in Minnesota, and books for that semester, and a roundtrip bus ticket to Minnesota so I could attend the college orientation there. I've had to take care of everything else. But I guess, since I'm not blind, I didn't need a lot of things.

It can't hurt to ask VR, and if they won't or can't, I hope the Lion's Club is willing to cover the cost for you. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you! :)
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thanks, lucia!

my previous vr counselor said they are willing to pay more expenses for deafblind clients because of their dual disability and the fact that the equipment they use is considerably more expensive than it is for people with other disabilities.

also, since my hearing loss was progressive, vr had to constantly buy me new equipment (for example, a screen reader to a braille display) to compensate for my constantly decreasing hearing.

the lion's club here happens to be excellent, so i'm sure if i can get my doctor to write a letter of medical necessity indicating that i need an electronic brailler because of my severe cts, they just might pay the cost.

i'll keep you updated as to what i find out.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
Able to drive? WTF? Forgive me for doubting your ability to see well enough to drive, but if you're legally blind, how the hell do you drive safely? If you can't drive safely, then why were your vision teachers telling you you would be able to drive? Weren't they endangering your safety by telling you that? Or, were your vision much better when you were younger? I'm just trying to understand. I've just NEVER have seen a legally blind person drive. I hope I am not insulting you or being rude. If I am, feel free to tell me off. I apologize in advance if I was being insulting or being rude.
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actually, there are legally blind people who drive. i used to know several people with 20/200 vision who drove. they all used special lenses that were clipped over their prescription glasses to see in front of them. they also had restrictive licenses meaning that they could only drive during the daytime and not during dusk or evening hours. i don't agree with legally blind people getting behind the wheel of a car (even if they are high partials), but they are going to continue doing what they want regardless of what others say. unfortunately, it's going to take a serious or fatal accident before they realize how unsafe it is to drive.
 
Hear Again said:
actually, there are legally blind people who drive. i used to know several people with 20/200 vision who drove. they all used special lenses that were clipped over their prescription glasses to see in front of them. they also had restrictive licenses meaning that they could only drive during the daytime and not during dusk or evening hours. i don't agree with legally blind people getting behind the wheel of a car (even if they are high partials), but they are going to continue doing what they want regardless of what others say. unfortunately, it's going to take a serious or fatal accident before they realize how unsafe it is to drive.
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Oh. I didn't know that. I actually have no idea how much vision a person with 20/200 vision actually has. Thanks for telling me. I honestly did not know.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
Oh. I didn't know that. I actually have no idea how much vision a person with 20/200 vision actually has. Thanks for telling me. I honestly did not know.
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Depending on their visual condition and ability to adapt with it, 20/200 vision is indeed limited, but can mean having a LOT of functional vision: sometimes, not enough to see a step before you fall down it, but with other conditions (like achromatopsia, which I've seen bioptic driving used with) having enough vision to read a regular-print book without any sort of vision aids.

20/200 vision means that, with the best ordinary correcting visual aids, the person sees at 20 feet what the 'average' (which is not to say the best healthy) eye will see at 200 feet, in terms of quality and richness of visual information.

However, looking through a bioptic telescope is not considered an ordinary visual aid because you can only spot through them, not use them for sustained periods of time. For the purposes of spotting street signs and road signals, the person is still required to get the level of vision required for ordinary drivers (which is 20/50 for a regular license and up to 20/70 for a daytime restricted one, here) and there's usually a legal limitation regarding how low-strength the telescopes need to be.

There has been no proof, as of yet, that bioptic drivers are more likely to be in an accident. It's a risk that, even if I had enough vision, I'd never take.. but you can't say something as blanket as 'they shouldn't do it cos they'll kill someone'.. because that's along the lines of saying 'deaf drivers can't hear horns, so they might not hear a warning and hit a chil running into the street, so they shouldn't drive!' ... ridiculous.
 
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